MIDDLE EAST: Israel announced the lifting of a series of restrictions on the Palestinians yesterday, but the violence in the region continued, with one Israeli killed by Palestinian gunmen, a second Israeli shot and wounded by Israeli troops who had mistaken him for a Palestinian gunman, and a Palestinian shot dead in a Jewish settlement as he tried to detonate a bomb.
The Israeli killed was shot dead yesterday afternoon when his car was ambushed near Atarot in the West Bank, north of Jerusalem.
A short while earlier, the driver of an Israeli vehicle opened fire in unclear circumstances - he appeared to be shooting at Palestinians he suspected were gunmen - near the West Bank city of Hebron. Israeli soldiers at a nearby roadblock, who thought the shots were coming from a Palestinian vehicle, opened fire and seriously wounded him.
In line with what appears to be a new policy by Palestinian militants to focus their attacks on Israeli targets inside the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a Palestinian bomber tried to detonate an explosive device in a supermarket in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, south of Jerusalem. But he was shot dead by a shopper before he could detonate the bomb.
The Al Aqsa Brigades, a group linked to the Fatah party of the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, claimed responsibility in a statement. Relatives of the bomber, who identified him as Mr Mohammed Tawfik Shamali (24) from a village near Bethlehem, said he had a permit to enter Efrat to work.
Israeli officials blamed Mr Arafat for the attack. A Foreign Ministry official, Mr Arie Mekel, said it was an "absurd situation in which Arafat continues to make speeches about peace, and his terrorists continue to try and kill Israelis".
Mr Arafat, who said yesterday he was still committed to his December 16th call for a ceasefire, criticised Israel after Friday prayers declaring the Palestinians would not buckle in the face of what he called Israel's "dangerous and very fierce attacks".
In yet another effort to initiate steps toward a ceasefire, senior Israeli and Palestinian security officials met late last night at the Erez checkpoint crossing between Israel and Gaza. As part of a series of goodwill gestures to the Palestinians following the meeting, Israel announced it would allow some residents of the West Bank to pray at mosques in Jerusalem during the Muslim feast of Eid Al Adha which began yesterday.
The Defence Minister, Mr Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, said some Palestinians jailed for entering Israel illegally, and Palestinian prisoners whose sentence was almost over, would be released. Some visits between Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza would be permitted, and restrictions on the entry of Palestinian businessmen into Israel would be eased, the defence minister added. Palestinians traditionally visit relatives during the Eid.
As a result of agreements reached at the security meeting, the Israeli army also dismantled roadblocks it had set in place in the Gaza Strip after an attack earlier in the week in which three Israelis were killed.
Israeli troops also withdrew from positions they had taken up near the El Bureij refugee camp in Gaza, although troops remained in an area in the northern part of the Strip.