Israel Tries to Repair Relations With Palestinians : Mideast: A Hebron shrine remains closed. But officials announce moves intended to reassure Arabs that accords reached with the PLO will be honored.

It is hard to feel it in this town where Arabs and Jews live locked in mutual loathing, but Israel is slowly trying to repair the damage that a recent string of guerrilla attacks inflicted on its relationship with the Palestine Liberation Organization.

In Hebron on Monday, both Jews and Muslims spoke bitterly of the government’s continuing refusal to reopen the Cave of the Patriarchs, a site holy to both their religions. The massive structure, called the Ibrahim Mosque by Muslims, has been shut since a Jewish settler killed Muslim worshipers there in February.

“We are the public that has a direct interest in the reopening, and we hear nothing from the government,” said Noam Arnon, spokesman for the Jewish settlers who live in the heart of Hebron.

The army has spent months devising a system that will physically separate Jewish and Muslim worshipers inside the structure and had tentatively planned to open the site Monday. But the Israelis postponed the opening until at least next week for what government spokesman Uri Dromi insisted were “technical security reasons.”

“Our working assumption is that when the cave is opened, it is opened into a tense situation,” Dromi said. “This is why we need to make sure that no technical function will ignite the whole situation.”

But even as the shrine stayed closed, Israeli officials announced moves intended to reassure the Palestinians that Israel will continue to honor the agreement it reached with them 13 months ago and gradually hand over civil authority throughout the West Bank.

Palestinian police are scheduled to take up positions today at two crossing points--one between Jordan and the West Bank, the other between Egypt and the Gaza Strip--for the first time. The Palestinian flag was hoisted alongside the Israeli flag at the Rafah crossing in Gaza on Monday and will be raised at the Allenby Bridge in the West Bank today. And Palestinians visiting the territories will now be questioned and searched by Palestinian police rather than Israeli soldiers.

An official presence at the two international crossings is an important symbol of the sovereignty that Palestinians are struggling to establish in the territories. Palestinians have always resented the aggressive questioning and searching that Israelis routinely subjected them to at international crossings. Israel retains the right to intervene for security purposes when it wishes, but most Palestinian travelers to the territories now will have face-to-face contact only with Palestinian officials. Israel’s presence will fade from another aspect of their daily lives.

Israel and the PLO also have reached agreement, after months of difficult negotiations, on the so-called safe passages that will link Gaza and the West Bank town of Jericho, the two areas of self-rule. The passages will be roads that Palestinian officials and their bodyguards may freely travel, armed, without fear of being stopped at Israeli roadblocks. They are scheduled to open next week and will allow PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat to assert his presence in Jericho, which he has visited only once since May.

Most important for the vast majority of Palestinians, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin promised in the Moroccan port of Casablanca on Sunday, after meeting with Arafat, to “progressively lift” the current closure of Gaza and the West Bank. The two were attending a regional economic conference designed to bring Israelis and Arabs together to plan the economic revitalization of the Middle East and North Africa.

Israel closed the territories Oct. 12 after Israeli soldier Nachshon Waxman was kidnaped by the militant Islamic organization Hamas. It briefly lifted the closure Oct. 19, only to reimpose it the next day after a Hamas suicide bomber blew up a busload of people in Tel Aviv. The territories have remained closed since. Closure means that about 63,500 permit-holding Palestinian workers are not allowed to travel to their jobs in Israel. It has disrupted life for nearly every Palestinian living in the territories and has infuriated the self-governing Palestinian Authority.

Palestinian officials Monday immediately criticized Rabin for not completely ending the closure, and Israeli officials declined to provide details of what Rabin meant by “progressive.” But what seems certain is that thousands of Palestinians will begin returning to their jobs today, relieving some of the political pressure that Arafat has been feeling.

After meeting with Arafat on Sunday, Rabin also announced he will meet the chairman next Monday at Erez checkpoint--the crossing point between Israel and Gaza--to discuss the holding of Palestinian elections. Arafat had wanted elections this month, a target that is now all but impossible to meet.

Israel and the PLO remain far apart on who should participate in the elections and on the size of the body to be elected. Israel wants a 30-member executive committee; the Palestinians want a 100-member legislative body.

The Palestinians accuse Israel of manufacturing excuses to avoid reaching an agreement on elections, which they say are essential for establishing the appointed authority’s credibility.

“We are disappointed--no, I should say we are extremely disappointed--about the election issue,” said Marwan Kanafani, a spokesman for Arafat who was in Casablanca with him Monday. “Elections are important and essential; they are the heart of the peace process,” he said. “Unfortunately, the seriousness and the urgency that we feel is met neither by the prime minister nor the foreign minister of Israel. We met with Prime Minister Rabin on Sunday and heard, once again, nothing new.”

Kanafani said he hoped the Israelis “will be able to concentrate their minds” by the time Arafat and Rabin meet next week. He also complained that the United States has failed to pressure Israel on holding elections quickly.

Curtius reported from Hebron and Parks from Casablanca, Morocco.