GAZA CITY, 22 September 2005 — The status of four crossing points to the Gaza Strip has been changed into international border terminals by Israel following its withdrawal from the territory last week.

Interior Minister Ofir Pines-Paz signed an order which officially converted the northern Erez and Karni terminals and the two in the south, Sufa and Kerem Shalom, into regular border crossings.

“It is now considered an international border, and people will be entering and exiting Israel exactly like they do at the Allenby Bridge crossing (with Jordan) or Ben Gurion International Airport,” Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Haddad told AFP.

“It means anyone — foreigners or Israelis — coming into Israel from Gaza will be subject to the law of entry into Israel, which means they have to present their passport and it will be stamped.” Until last week’s pullout, Israelis only had to carry identity cards but not passports. Foreigners had to show their passports but they were not stamped with entry or exit stamps, she said.

However, Palestinians entering Israel for work or for medical treatment would not have to carry a passport, she said.

“They will do exactly as they did before. The minister made sure they did not have to change the procedures for entering Israel,” said Haddad, saying it was a gesture to ease living conditions for the largely impoverished Palestinian population.

Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas continued his efforts to take charge in Gaza. Fighter groups have promised to end all military parades after Saturday, a Hamas official said yesterday.

The official, Said Siam, said the groups made the commitment in a meeting with Abbas in Gaza City. Since Israel’s pullout Hamas and Islamic Jihad have staged several large rallies featuring gunmen firing in the air.

Siam said the commitment did not mean the fighters would give up their weapons.

Yesterday, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Israel “won’t allow Hamas” to participate in Palestinian Parliament elections in January, going farther than Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has threatened to withhold Israeli cooperation if Hamas participates.

Abbas visited the border with Egypt yesterday and said it would be opened on a trial basis for two days, starting tomorrow, for students and medical cases.

A day after Israeli forces left four evacuated settlements in the northern West Bank, completing its “disengagement,” a group of displaced settlers from Gaza said they had government permission to relocate at an old military base in the West Bank.

Shirat Hayam evacuees said they would move to Maskiyot in the northern Jordan River Valley, now a military school. That would violate Israeli pledges not to set up new settlements in the West Bank, contained in the internationally backed road map peace plan and promises to the US.

However, Ron Sheckner, a Defense Ministry official, denied that permission has been given. “No one got a promise about this,” he said, adding that Israel would only expand existing settlements — also a violation of the road map.

Palestinians said any decision to move Gaza settlers to Maskiyot would ruin the positive atmosphere created by the Gaza withdrawal. “It seems that the Israelis give with one hand and take away with the other,” Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.

An old West Bank military camp used as a staging area for the pullout was being dismantled yesterday, military officials said. Witnesses said Palestinians were waiting outside to celebrate.

Celebrations at the evacuated West Bank settlements continued yesterday. Dozens of gunmen from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a group with ties to Abbas’ Fatah movement, fired in the air.

“This is our victory ... the victory of your weapons,” Zakariye Zubeydi, a leader of the gunmen, told several hundred supporters. “We will continue to expel them (Israelis) from every centimeter of Palestine.”

With Palestinian lawmakers preparing a no-confidence motion Monday because of lawlessness in the West Bank and Gaza, Abbas allies were exploring the possibility of a Cabinet reshuffle to head it off.

Deputy Parliament Speaker Hassan Khreisha, mediating between the Parliament and the Cabinet, said a majority of the lawmakers appear to favor dissolving the government. Still, he said, “we may find a compromise, like reshuffling the Cabinet.”

— With input from agencies