Israel Imposes Total Closure on Palestinian Territories

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) imposed a total closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip since Saturday morning following a suicide bombing midnight Friday in Tel Aviv that killed 18 and injured over 100.

The closure is Israel's first step in retaliation for the bombing attack, the deadliest since 1997.

The decision was made by Israel's inner security cabinet, which met earlier in the day in the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv to discuss possible response to the bombing attack, the Israeli radio reported.

The inner security cabinet consists of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer.

The IDF was ordered to impose a total closure on the West Bank. No Palestinians would be allowed to enter Israel during the period of closure.

Meanwhile, Israel's Navy was ordered to seal off the Gaza coast, while a closure was also imposed on the Gaza International Airport, indicating that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Chairman Yasser Arafat's plane can not use the airport too.

The IDF and other Israeli security officials urged all Palestinian workers inside Israel, whether in possession of a work permit or not, to immediately return to their homes in the territories.

Following the meeting in the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, Sharon is holding his full 13-member security cabinet meeting right now to continue discussing the matter.

It is still not clear whether Israel would launch military attacks against the Palestinian targets as it usually did in the past.

Since the outbreak of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict last September, Israel tightened its closure on the Palestinian territories in general, but sometimes eased the closure to allow the flow of goods into the occupied Palestinian territories.

A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at a nightclub in Tel Aviv's beachfront, killing 17 Israelis aged between 17 to 19 and the bomber himself.






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