The Israeli army said today it had intercepted a car in the West Bank carrying gas canisters and explosives, which it said it believed were destined for an attack on Israel.
The vehicle was stopped on a road near the northwestern town of Qalqilya linking the West Bank with Israel, the army said.
The army had relaxed a curfew on the town the previous day.
Yesterday, Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer said Israeli troops had intercepted three car bombs and arrested 15 would-be Palestinian suicide bombers since they reoccupied nearly all the West Bank three weeks ago.
"We must stay there because there is no alternative to prevent one or two suicide bombers committing attacks in Israel every day or prevent terrorists from infiltrating in booby-trapped cars," Mr Ben Eliezer told public radio in justification of the reoccupation of formerly self-ruled Palestinian towns.
AFP