Israel clamps down on Palestinian travel

Israel today imposed further restrictions on Palestinian movement, introducing a total ban on inter-town travel in most of the West Bank and blocking the Gaza Strip's north-south road with more than two dozen tanks.

The clamp down followed a bloody 24 hours in which a Palestinian suicide bomber blew up an Israeli bus and gunmen carried out separate shooting attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank. Thirteen people were killed in the attacks, including 11 Israelis, both Jews and Arabs, and two women from the Philippines. Three assailants also died.

Under the new ban, Palestinians will not be able to drive in the northern half of the West Bank, between the towns of Nablus, Jenin, Qalqiliya, Tulkarem and Ramallah, the army said. Some movement will be permitted in the southern West Bank, including the towns of Hebron, Bethlehem and Jericho.

Stringent restrictions on Palestinian travel have been in place since the outbreak of fighting in September 2000, with Palestinians confined to their communities for extended periods as Israeli troops tried to prevent attacks on Israelis.

Palestinians trying to get to jobs and schools often use dirt roads to get around military checkpoints. The military said today's announcement of a "total ban" on Palestinian traffic meant that existing blockades would be strictly enforced. Exemptions would be made in humanitarian cases, the military said.

In Gaza, about 25 tanks took up positions on the main north-south road, cutting off the town of Rafah and an adjacent refugee camp from the rest of the strip. The army said it imposed the blockade to prevent attacks on Israelis.

Palestinian attacks have killed 27 people since an Israeli air strike on July 22 killed leading Hamas militant Salah Shehadeh and nine children in Gaza.

The continued attacks - despite Israel's occupation of seven of the eight main West Bank towns - raised questions about the army's dwindling repertoire of responses.

In trying to deter attacks, the army demolished nine homes of Palestinian assailants yesterday, reviving a practice abandoned several years ago. Another proposed deterrent, the deportation of relatives of attackers, is being challenged in court.

In the latest violence, a West Bank shooting early today, an Israeli couple was killed when Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a car on the main road between Ramallah and Nablus.

Two of the couple's children were wounded