Israel Likely to Reduce Blockades

With Mideast violence declining in recent days, Israel is expected to scale back tough restrictions on Palestinian movement that have been a major point of friction throughout more than a year of fighting, both sides said Saturday.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Cabinet will hold its regular weekly session today and will decide which measures to take at this stage, an Israeli government source said on condition of anonymity.

Sharon and right-wing members of his government have said repeatedly that Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat has not done enough to prevent attacks on Israel and have been reluctant to lift security restrictions.

But at a meeting Friday between Israel’s dovish foreign minister, Shimon Peres, and Palestinian officials, the sides agreed that Israel would begin to remove some barriers that have kept Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip from entering Israel.

“The Israeli side has committed to start lifting the closure within the coming two days,” Ahmed Korei, the Palestinian parliament speaker who met with Peres, told Palestinian radio.

Korei did not give details but said the Israeli moves were intended as part of a “whole package” of reduced restrictions during the next two weeks.

During the past year, the Israeli travel restrictions have crippled the Palestinian economy, which is heavily dependent on workers in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip who commute to Israel each day for jobs.

About 150,000 Palestinians made the trip daily before violence broke out in September 2000. Today, only a few thousand Palestinians are legally allowed into Israel each day.

A truce declared Sept. 26 appeared to be collapsing amid the ongoing violence, but the fighting has been on the decline in recent days. During the past week, six Palestinians and one Israeli have been killed. The last death came in a confrontation between the two sides Monday.

Still, there are daily incidents. Israeli troops fired tear gas and rubber bullets Saturday to prevent hundreds of Palestinians from trying to evade a roadblock in the West Bank village of Ijnisinya, north of Nablus.

Also, Palestinians held several demonstrations to mark the end of the mourning period for Mustafa Zibri, the leader of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or PFLP.

Zibri, widely known as Abu Ali Mustafa, was killed Aug. 27 when Israeli helicopters fired rockets into his West Bank office. Israel said he was responsible for a series of car bombings claimed by the group.

At the rally in Nablus, about 100 PFLP activists with red masks marched through the streets and fired guns into the air. Some carried pictures of the Israeli prime minister that read “Sharon the terrorist.”

Arafat has demanded that militants observe the cease-fire and halt attacks on Israel. However, radical groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad have refused to endorse the truce.

Israel has demanded that Arafat’s security forces arrest militants, but only a small number have been detained. Asked if the Palestinians would be making additional arrests, Korei said: “The issue of arrests is a security matter that should be discussed in a security meeting.”

In a separate development, Arafat will meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London on Monday to discuss the stricken Middle East peace process and U.S.-led airstrikes on Afghanistan.

In an article published Saturday in the Al Quds newspaper, Blair told Palestinians not to believe Osama bin Laden when he says he supports their fight for independence.

“Osama bin Laden likes to pretend he speaks for the Palestinian cause. He likes to pretend that he is driven by faith. Neither of those claims, it seems to me, is true,” Blair wrote in the Jerusalem-based newspaper.

“They are a cover for his real motivation, which is power--power which he yields through terror,” he added.

A Palestinian who was shot in the head in clashes between pro-Bin Laden demonstrators and Palestinian police Monday died of his wounds Saturday, hospital officials said.

Two other Palestinians were also killed in the clashes.