Following the bombing attack on Erez Crossing, Israel's Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz decided to impose a 24-hour closure on the Gaza Strip late on Wednesday, Israel Army Radio reported. Palestinians will be allowed to enter Israel only in "humanitarian cases," but goods will be allowed in and out of the Strip, the report added.
Elsewhere, Palestinian security sources said Israeli forces moved into both the town of Jenin and the nearby Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank early on Thursday.
The sources added a group of about 40 Israeli jeeps and armoured vehicles were involved in exchanges of fire with Palestinian fighters when they entered Jenin.
In the Jenin refugee camp, another convoy of at least 30 Israeli vehicles imposed a curfew and carried out house searches, the sources conveyed to AFP.
Palestinian sources also reported that Israeli forces had demolished a house once occupied by an activist of the Palestinian group Hamas who was killed two years ago. They said the house, in the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem, had been occupied by Tareq Abed Rabbo, who died in a clash with Israeli forces.
In the meantime, Dr. Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a leading member of Hamas in the Gaza Strip revealed on Thursday that the movement had recently received a US proposal to stop attacks against Israel in exchange for Israel's halt of assassination attempts on the movement's top leaders.
However, he said Hamas had rejected the proposal, asserting that "attacks will not stop as long as the occupation continues."
Rantisi refused to disclose how his movement received the US message. He just said "America speaks with us in many ways."
Meanwhile, Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Wednesday that a U.S.-backed peace plan was more likely to fail than succeed as long as it depended on reaching a deal with the Palestinians.
Olmert reiterated Tel Aviv's commitment to the road map for peace through negotiations with the Palestinians, but also its threat of unilateral partition moves if there is no progress.
Olmert told Reuters he did not see a Palestinian leadership able to crack down on "terror" organizations.
"As long as it depends on an agreement between us and the Palestinians it certainly is below 50 [percent]," he said in an interview. "I still see terror and growing corruption and almost total chaos amongst the Palestinian ranks."
Olmert said the fact that Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Quriea (Abu Ala) had not specifically condemned Wednesday's suicide attack showed a reluctance "to stop terror and therefore lay the foundations for the necessary basis for political dialogue." (Albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
