JERUSALEM, 4 April 2008 — Israel said yesterday it had removed 50 roadblocks in the occupied West Bank as part of promises made to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but US and Palestinian officials could not confirm their removal.

A senior US official said “it is hard to assess” the impact of the roadblocks’ removal, let alone confirm they were scrapped, because Israel had yet to give Washington or the Palestinians a map showing where the dirt-mound obstacles were.

Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian peace negotiator, said “nothing has changed on the ground,” comments echoed by four senior Palestinian security officials who monitor Israeli operations in the West Bank.

A senior Palestinian security source said he could confirm the removal of at least three of the dirt-mound obstacles, near the cities of Ramallah, Jericho and Tulkarm. He said Palestinians expected more would be dismantled soon.

On Sunday, after talks Rice held with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on bolstering peace negotiations, Israel said it would remove 50 roadblocks, ease travel for Palestinian businessmen and increase the number of entry permits for Palestinian workers.

An army spokeswoman and a defense official said the obstacles had been taken down. They declined to say where the roadblocks were located or when they were dismantled.

“We have asked for a map and I understand the Palestinians have asked for a map,” the US official said. “Our intention is to verify what’s happened on the ground. We don’t have the information yet to do that.”

Israel has built up a network of hundreds of checkpoints and roadblocks in the West Bank, home to 2.5 million Palestinians. It says the barriers stop suicide bombers from reaching its cities.

Citing security concerns, Israel has balked at Palestinian calls to dismantle major West Bank checkpoints. Palestinians say travel restrictions imposed by Israel stifle their economy.

Israel has pledged in the past to remove West Bank barriers but failed to do so, Western officials said.

A US general who is to monitor whether Israel is carrying out its promises to Rice and other commitments under a long-stalled peace “road map” that also obliges Palestinians to take confidence-building steps is not in the region. He is scheduled to return next week.

Meanwhile, an Israeli settler shot dead a Palestinian, Abdul Latif Ali Al-Khroub, who the Israeli Army said tried to attack Jewish settlers at a bus stop in the occupied West Bank. A Palestinian security source said the man killed was a civilian not affiliated with any militant group, and denied he had attempted to attack Israelis.

Fayyad Warns Civil Servants

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad took a tough stance yesterday against civil servants who threatened a full strike to protest the non-payment of salaries before his “caretaker” government took office in June.

Many public employees have observed a partial strike for months, demanding the Fayyad government pay their overdue salaries before it replaced a Hamas-led unity government, which had had difficulty paying its civil servants due to an international boycott.

Public schoolteachers have been teaching half days only, while other state employees have this week struck two out of five working days.

Fayyad read a statement to the media after convening an extraordinary Cabinet session on the threatened full strike.

“A short time after this government took over,” he said, “calls for a strike began and then there was an actual strike.” This, he said, has affected students as well as many sectors of the Palestinian society.

Fayyad stressed his government had met all workers’ demands, including regular payment of salaries since June, and was working on the rest of their demands. However, he said, his government, which survives mainly due to international aid, cannot raise salaries or meet additional demands because it lacked the financial resources.

His government would not pay salaries for any period public employees will not show up for work if they went on a full strike, he threatened.

He also urged President Mahmoud Abbas to pass a decree giving any party affected by the strike the right to go to court to stop it.

“It will be impossible to meet any additional demands,” he said.

“What is not possible to meet without a strike will not be possible with a strike,” he added.