Israel moves to ease restrictions on Palestinians

Ehud Olmert, Israel's Prime Minister, yesterday authorised the removal of dozens of West Bank roadblocks as part of a phased package of measures designed to ease restrictions on Palestinians. It also aims to strengthen President Mahmoud Abbas in his power struggle with the Hamas government following a summit meeting on Saturday night at which the two leaders met for the first time since Mr Olmert took office last January.

Israel says it will allow more Palestinian produce to cross from the Gaza Strip and West Bank to Israeli ports and try to shorten queues for individuals waiting to be checked. It will also increase the number of permits for Palestinians to enter Israel.

Israel also said it would start dismantling some of the 400 West Bank roadblocks which currently make it difficult or impossible for Palestinians to go to work in Israel, but it did not give a date. Ephraim Sneh, the Deputy Defence Minister, said 27 would be removed, though a government announcement was less specific. It said a final order would be given "depending on developments in the next few days". This may have been a veiled reference to the continued firing of Qassam rockets into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip in breach of the ceasefire agreed a month ago.

Mr Olmert's security team is meeting on Thursday to reassess Israel's policy of non-retaliation. The same meeting will also consider a token release of Palestinian security prisoners for the Muslim feast of Id al-Adha, which begins next week. Ministers are softening their insistence that Hamas must first free Corporal Gilad Shalit, abducted in a cross-border raid six months ago.

Any prisoner release is expected to be in double figures, much less than the hundreds demanded by Hamas for Corporal Shalit. Most of them, officials indicated, would be women and minors.

The Israeli prison service says it is holding about 10,000 Palestinians on security charges. Of these, more than 100 are women and several hundred are under the age of 16.

Amir Peretz, the Defence Minister, said yesterday that he supported a prisoner release, even if Corporal Shalit stayed in captivity. "There has been a humanitarian release of prisoners every year at the approach of Id al-Adha, Christmas, the holiday week," he argued. "A humanitarian act such as this would not put back the release of Gilad Shalit and, I hope, would increase the chances for it."

As so often in recent years, Christmas festivities in the place where it all began were subdued. Hundreds of worshippers packed the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem yesterday, but most of them were local Christians. Few foreign pilgrims, the mainstay of the town's economy, braved the Israeli and Palestinian security checks.