Israel and the Palestinians, after an acrimonious nineteen-month-long deadlock, sign an agreement in the U.S. in October 1998 that stipulates further Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Palestinian efforts to clamp down on terrorist acts against Israel.

The groundbreaking deal is hammered out during an intensive nine-day summit at the Wye Plantation in Maryland.

U.S. President Bill Clinton takes the initiative to save the process after a breakdown of trust between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority 'Arafat has rendered further unmediated contacts between the parties futile.

In relative terms, the latest uprising between Palestine and Israel, called the second intifadah, is bloodier than the first.

As in the previous intifadah, Palestinian youths, backed up by 'Arafat's Tanzim militia firing light weapons, throw stones and Molotov cocktails at Israeli soldiers, who respond with rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammunition.

However, both sides employ greater force than in the intifadah of 1987 to 1991.

As international efforts to restore peace fail, cameras record the death of a twelve-year old Arab boy by gunfire in Gaza, enabling the Palestinians to gain considerable support and sympathy throughout the world.

More than one hundred and fifty Palestinians are killed in the first month of fighting, a quarter of them children.

The Palestinians accuse the Israeli army of brutality; Israel accuses the Palestinians of cynically exposing children to crossfire for propaganda purposes.