Palestinians Enter Israel as Blockade Is Eased
Israel allowed thousands of Palestinian workers into the country Sunday for the first time in more than three weeks, significantly easing an economic blockade on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The letup, and revelations that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Shimon Peres discussed forming a joint government, indicated movement toward ending a stalemate with the Palestinians.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian woman crossing into the Israeli-occupied West Bank from Jordan shot and wounded two Israelis and an Arab man Sunday.
The shooting at the Allenby bridge came against a background of Palestinian anger over Israel’s construction of a Jewish settlement in historically Arab East Jerusalem, a project that has touched off almost daily clashes in the West Bank.
In Hebron on Sunday, Jewish settlers pelted Palestinians with rocks and empty bottles from their rooftops. Palestinians in the market below climbed up to adjacent rooftops to retaliate. Seven people were injured.
The army announced the decision to ease the blockade Saturday, but figures on how many workers actually entered Israel were not available.
The blockade was tightened after a cafe bombing last month in Tel Aviv that killed three Israelis and the Palestinian bomber.
The prime minister Saturday said he had spoken with his Cabinet about a government with Labor, which oversaw the first Israeli-Palestinian peace accords in the early 1990s.
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