Israel closes borders
2003-03-16 16:30
Jerusalem - The Israeli army late on Saturday closed the borders with the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a military communique said.
"No Palestinian will be authorised to enter Israeli following alerts of attacks during the Jewish festival of Purim," celebrated from Monday to Wednesday, the communique said.
It added that the Allenby and Adam bridges over the river Jordan linking the West Bank and Jordan would remain open to traffic.
The borders were closed at 22:00.
A Palestinian security source said that the army had turned back more than 10 000 workers early on Sunday from the Gaza Strip who were trying to reach their employers in Israel.
On Saturday Israeli military authorities also banned Palestinian men aged 15 to 35 from leaving the West Bank and Gaza Strip for an indefinite period, the Palestinian source said. As a result around 100 Palestinians had been turned back at Rafah, a Palestinian town in the southern Gaza Strip which lies hard on the border with Egypt.
Palestinian local government minister Saeb Erakat denounced the move as "a new escalation in Israeli's policy of aggression against the Palestinian people", adding "One can expect more repressive measures in the run-up to a war in Iraq."
- AFX