The head of the Central Command, Major General Yitzhak Eitan, announced
the new measures in a late-night briefing in Jerusalem.
Eitan said the siege would affect "all the cities in Judea and Samaria and all the A areas." Judea and Samaria comprise the biblical area now known as the West Bank. The A areas are those that are fully autonomous.
The ruling does not apply to the Gaza Strip, but Palestinians cannot leave
it because the crossings to Israel are closed. The airport and the border
crossing to Egypt have been closed after gunmen killed a customs broker who
worked there.
Eitan said that in the coming days there would be "severe traffic
restrictions on the roads for all Palestinian passengers."
A military spokesman said there would be exceptions for humanitarian
cases and for shipping supplies.
The move was taken as Palestinians seemed to be changing tactics and
targeting Jewish motorists instead of participating in violent demonstrations and shooting at
soldiers in well-defended positions.
Late Monday gunmen killed three Israelis north of Ramallah.
Avi Sar-El, of the West Bank settlement of Talmon, said he had slowed down
at a junction when a car overtook him and someone inside opened fire.
Sar-El said he immediately looked at his passenger, Sara Lisha, 41, of the
settlement of Halamish, northwest of Ramallah.
"I saw two hits. A powerful stream of blood came out of her head. She died
on the spot," he said.
Lisha, a mother of five, was a gym teacher and was on her way home after
work.
The attackers' car sped away and a few hundred meters down the road drove
past a civilian bus carrying soldiers.
The attackers sprayed the bus with automatic gunfire, killing two soldiers
and injuring six. Eye witnesses later counted some 50 bullet holes.
The army identified the two soldiers as El'ad Wallenstein, 18, and Amit
Zana, 19. They had been sent to guard settlements.
Later that night a truck driver, Gabriel Zaguri, 36, was shot and killed
near the Kissufim roadblock in the Gaza Strip.
Police said that Zaguri, a father of three, was hauling produce from the
Gaza Strip. Zaguri is survived by three children ages 5 to 9.
A government spokesman, Moshe Fogel, told reporters there have been more
than 1,300 shootings in the past six weeks. "There has been an
increase in shooting incidents over the weekend. A lot over the weekend," he
said.
"We are involved in warfare, terrorism. It may be guerrilla warfare, low
intensity warfare, but it is warfare and during warfare the rules of
engagement and criteria to defend oneself are also adjusted," he said.
An authoritative military source told United Press International there had
been no change in the text of the rules of engagement. Those rules allow
soldiers to shoot in life-threatening situations, and the soldiers may judge
what is life-threatening, and now more situations can be considered
life-threatening.
Monday's attacks spurred West Bank settlers to demand tougher action
against Palestinians.
The secretary general of the Council of Settlers, Shlomo Filber, said,
"Whoever thinks civilians and soldiers will be sitting ducks in a shooting
range and that we will restrain ourselves is wrong!"
He said settlers would not let the Palestinians wage "a deluxe war" in
which they shoot at Israeli motorists when they want and then freely use those roads.
Palestinians sources said Israeli soldiers Monday killed two Palestinians
during clashes in Gaza Strip's southern town of Khan Yunes.
Nasser Hospital officials there told reporters that Mohamed Al Taweel, and
Mohamed Abu Shamalla, both 18 years old, arrived dead after being shot in
their chests. In the West Bank town of Kalkilya, an 18-year-old officer in
the Palestinian elite Force-17 was killed when Palestinians fired at
Israeli soldiers and Israeli tanks returned heavy fire.
Meanwhile, Ahmad Hassan Dahlan, the 17-year-old nephew of the head of the
Preventive Security in the Gaza Strip, Mohammad Dahlan, died of his wounds
at the Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, the hospital said.
Copyright 2000 by United Press International.
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