2006 in Israel - Events

Events

• January 4 – Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffers a severe hemorrhagic stroke and falls into a coma. As a result, Sharon's deputy Ehud Olmert begins exercising the powers of the office of Prime Minister.
• February 1 – The demolition of nine permanent structures in the communal settlement Amona in the central West Bank escalates into a violent confrontation between the police and the Special Patrol Unit to the settlers in which hundreds of settlers and dozens of police officers are injured.
• February 3 – Hezbollah fires some 30 mortar shells at IDF outposts along Israel's northern border, lightly wounding an Israeli soldier. In response, the Israeli Air Force strikes Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
• February 14 – The Tel Aviv Magistrates Court sentences Omri Sharon, the Israeli politician and son of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, to a nine-month prison term, a nine-month suspended sentence and a NIS 300,000 fine after he is convicted of violating political fund-raising law and providing false testimony.
• March 28 – Kadima leader Ehud Olmert declares victory in the 17th Israeli legislative election, ahead of main opponents Labor and Likud.
• May 4 – Ehud Olmert presents his cabinet for a Knesset "Vote of Confidence". The 31st government is approved that day and the members were sworn in.
• June 12 – Five people are killed, and about 80 injured, when an Israeli train travelling between Tel Aviv and Haifa collides with a truck on a level crossing near Netanya.
• July 8 – President Moshe Katsav initially complains to the Attorney General of Israel, Menahem Mazuz, that he was being blackmailed by one of his female employees, whom he was later suspected of raping.

2006 Lebanon War:

• July 12 – Hezbollah militants fire rockets at Israeli border towns as a diversion for an anti-tank missile attack on two IDF armored Israeli Humvees patrolling the Israeli side of the border fence. The ambush leaves three IDF soldiers dead. Two other IDF soldiers, believed to have been killed outright or mortally wounded, are snatched by Hezbollah to Lebanon. Five more IDF soldiers are killed in a failed rescue attempt. This event and the escalation which follows lead to the 2006 Lebanon War.
• July 12 – August 14 – Israel launches Operation Just Reward, a counterattack which began with air force bombing of Hezbollah positions in Southern Lebanon.
• August 1 – August 2 – Operation Sharp and Smooth – Israel Defense Forces raid a Hezbollah-run hospital in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.
• August 4 – Tyre raid – Night mission is carried out by the Israel Defense Forces frogmen, Shayetet 13, in the southern Lebanon town of Tyre. It targets the Hezbollah cell responsible for the rocket attack on Hadera on the previous day.
• August 11 – August 14 – Operation Changing Direction 11 – Final offensive push by the Israel Defense Forces during the Lebanon War.
• August 14 – A United Nations-brokered ceasefire goes into effect, which brings an end to the 2006 Lebanon War.

Post-war:

• September 9 – A 4.4-magnitude earthquake affects Israel and the West Bank. No injuries are reported.
• October 29 – The Attorney-General of Israel delivers a brief to the Supreme Court of Israel arguing that the President of Israel, Moshe Katsav, should stand aside pending a possible indictment for rape.
• November 12 – Iranian nuclear program: Israel threatens to launch air strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities "as a last resort", and the Iranian foreign ministry responds that it would "retaliate with a crushing blow" should Israel act.
• November 21 – The Supreme Court of Israel orders the government to recognize same-sex marriages performed abroad.
• November 24 – Serial rapist Benny Sela escapes from police custody while being transferred to a court hearing. His escape launches a nationwide search, involving thousands of Israeli police officers.
• December 8 – Benny Sela is captured near Nahariya two weeks after his escape.

• On January 4 Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffers a severe hemorrhagic stroke and falls into a coma. As a result, power is transferred to his deputy, Vice Minister Ehud Olmert.

• 2006 Lebanon War – photo of Israeli soldiers of the Nahal Brigade leaving Lebanon.

• Billboard urging the public to help catch the serial rapist Benny Sela.