GAZA CITY, 18 October 2005 — Israel froze all security contacts with the Palestinian Authority and imposed tough travel restrictions on Palestinians yesterday, a day after three Israelis were killed in drive-by shootings in the West Bank. On Sunday, Israel also killed a senior Islamic Jihad activist.
The violence stirred new doubts about an already shaky eight-month-old cease-fire declared by militants and undermined hopes the Gaza pullout would spur renewed peacemaking.
Israel also raised the prospect that it might postpone once again a long-delayed Israeli-Palestinian summit, which had been expected in late October or early November after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas returns from a White House visit.
Demanding a Palestinian crackdown on militants, Israel said it was halting temporarily all security contacts with the Palestinian Authority, which had been expanded in recent months to include coordination of the pullout from the Gaza Strip.
Abbas said the violence undermined the truce and that he was confident security contacts with Israel would resume soon.
“As for relations and contacts with the Israelis, we are certain they are going to resume very rapidly because there are many things we can tackle with the Israelis and which must be discussed,” Abbas said before talks in Paris with French President Jacques Chirac.
The effects of the new travel restrictions were immediately felt across the West Bank, where dozens of new checkpoints appeared on major roads on Sunday night and Palestinian drivers were forced onto smaller back roads.
Israel had restricted Palestinians from traveling on the main roads during much of the Palestinian intifada, which began five years ago, but began allowing them back on the road after a truce agreement was reached in February.
— Additional input from agencies
