Israel Travel Restrictions

A day of intercommunal violence jolted Israel on Tuesday and prompted the government to prohibit Palestinians from entering the country from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, beginning today. Three incidents of violence occurred in widely separate parts of the country. In Mivtahim in Israel's far south, a Palestinian driving from work to his home in the Gaza Strip was shot and killed by Israeli civilians firing from a moving jeep, military officials said.

A tenuous U.S.-brokered cease-fire agreement between Israel and the Palestinians was greeted Wednesday with no celebration and much suspicion. U.S. officials were waiting to see whether the two sides begin to enact the truce, which aims to end fighting that has claimed nearly 600 lives and to eventually revive peace talks.

A Palestinian extremist, armed with a submachine gun, fired on Israeli civilians and soldiers in a drive-by attack in the Israeli port city of Ashdod on Thursday, killing one person and wounding four. The incident occurred even as the armed wing of a Palestinian fundamentalist group announced a campaign of terror, which it said would turn Israel and the occupied territories into a war zone in the next seven days.

Flush with optimism after the signing of the Oslo peace agreement, Bashar Masri returned to his homeland to found the Palestinian daily Al Ayyam, never imagining that as chief executive of a $7-million company he might one day have to deliver the newspapers himself.

Police barred thousands of Palestinians from entering Jerusalem on Monday and sent hundreds of flak-jacketed officers into the walled Old City to prevent clashes caused by heightened Arab-Israeli tensions. Officials also denied a request by Jewish extremists to enter Jerusalem's Temple Mount, site of the ancient Jewish Second Temple. Two historic mosques now stand on the site, and Muslims call it the Noble Sanctuary.

Israel's government Sunday imposed new restrictions on travel by Palestinians into Israel, pledged to accelerate deportation of nationalist activists and affirmed a policy of demolishing houses belonging to armed assailants as part of a campaign to put an end to assaults on Israelis. Expulsions and house demolitions have long been opposed by Washington.

Some Palestinians will be allowed to return to their jobs in Tel Aviv and Haifa next week, the Israeli Defense Ministry announced. The cities have been off-limits to Arabs from the Gaza Strip and West Bank since the occupied territories were placed under a curfew on Jan. 17 at the start of the Persian Gulf War. Palestinians reportedly will still be barred from Jerusalem.

Israel allowed Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip to leave their homes on Sunday and travel to jobs in Israel for the first time in a week, but the move failed to end an Arab business strike.

The Israeli army Monday declared the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip to be closed military areas, imposing unprecedented restrictions for the next three days on the 1.4 million Palestinian Arabs who live in the territories. More than 600,000 Arab residents of the Gaza Strip were confined to their homes under an areawide curfew that went into effect at 10 p.m. Monday. About 800,000 Arabs in the West Bank were restricted to their towns or villages.

Israeli authorities blocked international telephone service in the occupied territories and banned movement of Palestinians between the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Tuesday in an extraordinary new effort to end 14 weeks of Arab unrest. The moves follow a ban announced Monday on delivery of gasoline, heating oil and other fuel to the West Bank and tougher export controls meant to tighten the economic squeeze on Arab residents.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday rebuffed Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's appeal to ease economic restrictions on the West Bank and Gaza Strip to encourage the Palestinian Authority to crack down on terrorism. "As long as the Palestinian Authority doesn't make a vigorous effort to fight terrorism and dismantle their infrastructure, we will not go very far," Netanyahu told a news conference with Albright at his side after almost two hours of meetings.

Israel gave a Palestinian official permission to visit Jerusalem, the city claimed by both sides as their capital. Israel signed a peace agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization in May but wouldn't let its officials visit the disputed city. Nabil Shaath, minister of planning in the Palestinian Authority running the Gaza Strip and West Bank town of Jericho, will be allowed to visit Jerusalem's Muslim shrines, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's office announced.

A Palestinian extremist, armed with a submachine gun, fired on Israeli civilians and soldiers in a drive-by attack in the Israeli port city of Ashdod on Thursday, killing one person and wounding four. The incident occurred even as the armed wing of a Palestinian fundamentalist group announced a campaign of terror, which it said would turn Israel and the occupied territories into a war zone in the next seven days.

Israel's government Sunday imposed new restrictions on travel by Palestinians into Israel, pledged to accelerate deportation of nationalist activists and affirmed a policy of demolishing houses belonging to armed assailants as part of a campaign to put an end to assaults on Israelis. Expulsions and house demolitions have long been opposed by Washington.

Police barred thousands of Palestinians from entering Jerusalem on Monday and sent hundreds of flak-jacketed officers into the walled Old City to prevent clashes caused by heightened Arab-Israeli tensions. Officials also denied a request by Jewish extremists to enter Jerusalem's Temple Mount, site of the ancient Jewish Second Temple. Two historic mosques now stand on the site, and Muslims call it the Noble Sanctuary.

Israeli authorities announced Saturday that they are lifting their ban today on entry by Palestinians from the occupied lands, but they said there will be new security restrictions. More than 1.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have been confined to the territories since Wednesday, following a wave of Arab-Jewish street violence that left five people dead and 11 injured. The upsurge in the 34-month-old Palestinian uprising broke out after the Oct.

The Israeli army reopened most of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, but more than 3,000 security personnel remained prepared for possible violence on the 40th anniversary of the declaration of Israeli independence. The army had closed the territories Friday because of expected demonstrations during the close of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. Israel proclaimed its independence May 14, 1948, but celebrated the anniversary last month according to the Jewish calendar.

Israeli legislators defeated a bill Wednesday that would have made them subject to prosecution if they traveled abroad to meet members of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Israel considers the PLO a terrorist organization and bars its citizens from any contact with the group. However, members of the Knesset, or Parliament, enjoy immunity from prosecution. The bill, introduced by Geula Cohen of the right-wing Tehiya Party, was tied 30-30, which in the Israeli Parliament means defeat.

A day of intercommunal violence jolted Israel on Tuesday and prompted the government to prohibit Palestinians from entering the country from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, beginning today. Three incidents of violence occurred in widely separate parts of the country. In Mivtahim in Israel's far south, a Palestinian driving from work to his home in the Gaza Strip was shot and killed by Israeli civilians firing from a moving jeep, military officials said.