RAMALLAH: Israel has closed off the West Bank ahead of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, which started at sunset yesterday. The closure will continue until 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Friday.
Israeli security forces were placed on high alert and policemen were deployed in markets, synagogues, cemeteries and other public places fearing attacks against Israeli targets. The Defense Ministry has ordered security forces to close all West Bank crossings.
Meanwhile, Abbas Zakkour, an Arab member of Knesset (Israeli Parliament), has sent a letter to Israeli Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter asking him to increase the number of traffic police at major intersections to avert any incident of stone-throwing by Jews who might target vehicles of Arabs during the holiday.
Since the start of the second intifada in September 2000, the West Bank has been partially blocked off, with Israel authorizing only tens of thousands of Palestinians to travel to the Jewish state everyday. Police yesterday also stepped up security across Israel. “We have carried out a maximum deployment of our forces across the whole of the territory,” said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.
Settler violence
An Israeli parliamentary committee has said that the Israeli police are not capable of fighting the rising incidents of assaults by extremist Jewish settlers on Palestinians, police officers, and left-wing activists.
The Knesset’s Internal Affairs Committee said that only five police cars are in service in the entire Palestinian territories. Ophir Paz-Pines, committee’s chairman, in a letter to Public Security Minister Avi Dichter and Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen, spoke about the lack of resources available to the force — citing a small budget and shortage in manpower, as well as a “lack of means for carrying out law enforcement duties in Judea and Samaria (West Bank).”
In Cairo, Hamas officials met Egyptian mediators yesterday to hear proposals for resolving the movement’s standoff with President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah group, a Hamas official said.
Echoing the positions of both sides, Hamas official Ayman Taha told Reuters: “We are interested in ending the internal divisions and restoring unity to the people and the homeland.”
After yesterday’s meeting between Hamas officials and Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, Egypt’s state news agency MENA said: “Egypt will prepare a detailed paper on what has been agreed, for discussion in the comprehensive meeting to which the Palestinian groups will be invited in Cairo.”
— With input from agencies
