Travel limits could lessen for Palestinians in Israel

JERUSALEM -- With Mideast violence declining in recent days, Israel is expected to scale back tough restrictions on Palestinian movements that have been a major point of friction throughout more than a year of fighting, both sides said Saturday.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Cabinet will hold its regular weekly session Sunday and will decide which measures to take at this stage, an Israeli government source said on condition of anonymity.

Sharon and right-wing members of his government have said repeatedly that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has not done enough to prevent attacks on Israel, and have been reluctant to lift security restrictions.

But at a meeting Friday between Israel's dovish Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian officials, the sides agreed Israel would begin to remove some barriers that have kept Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip from entering Israel.

"The Israeli side has committed to start lifting the closure within the coming two days," Ahmed Qureia, the Palestinian parliament speaker who met with Peres, told Palestinian radio.

Qureia did not give details, but said the Israeli moves were intended as part of a "whole package" of reduced restrictions over the next two weeks.

Renewing the truce

A Mideast truce declared Sept. 26 appeared to be collapsing amid the ongoing violence, but the fighting has been on the decline in recent days. Over the past week, six Palestinians and one Israeli have been killed. The last death came in a confrontation between the two sides Monday.

Still, there are daily incidents. Israeli troops fired tear gas and rubber bullets Saturday to prevent hundreds of Palestinians from trying to evade a roadblock in the village of Ijnisinya, north of Nablus in the West Bank.

Also, Palestinians held several demonstrations to mark the end of the mourning period for Mustafa Zibri, the leader of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or PFLP.

Zibri, the highest-ranking Palestinian political figure to die in the Mideast violence, was killed Aug. 27 when Israeli helicopters fired rockets into his West Bank office. Israel had claimed he was responsible for a series of car bombings that the group had said it was responsible for.

At the rally in Nablus, about 100 PFLP activists with red masks marched through the streets and fired guns into the air. Some carried pictures of the Israeli prime minister that read, "Sharon the terrorist."

Radical opposition

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has demanded that militants observe the cease-fire and halt attacks on Israel, however, radical groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad have refused to endorse the truce.

Over the past year, the Israeli travel restrictions have crippled the Palestinian economy, which is heavily dependent on workers in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip who commute to Israel each day for jobs.