Barak in emergency talks

Palestinians throw stones at Israelis guarding a settlement

Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Barak is due to hold an emergency cabinet meeting on Wednesday, to deal with the continuing violence in the Palestinian territories.

Mr Barak, who returned slightly early from his talks with President Clinton in Washington, is also meeting army and security chiefs about the decision to seal off Palestinian-controlled towns.

Palestinians funerals are highly emotive

That move followed the killing of four Israelis and four Palestinians on Monday. On Tuesday, a further four Palestinians were killed.

Their funerals are due to take place on Wednesday, the anniversary of the symbolic Palestinian declaration of independence.

Strategy change

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah group has called for the expulsion of Israelis from the West Bank and Gaza on the anniversary of the 1988 Algiers declaration, to prepare for a Palestinian state.

The Israeli army is on high alert, according to Israel Radio.

The killing of four Israelis in ambushes has prompted Israeli alarm that Palestinians are adopting a new strategy focused on the roads and settlements of the West Bank.

Mr Barak has encountered opposition from right-wingers

In response, the Israeli commander in the West Bank, Major General Yitzhak Eitan, said the closure orders would be more stringent than in the past, with only food and medicine permitted to enter or leave the blockaded areas.

Our correspondent Chris Morris says life in the West Bank has been paralysed by the army's decision to close roads between the main Palestinian towns and cities.

Blockade

More than 100,000 Palestinians who normally work in Israel have been prevented from reaching their jobs for more than a month and now they cannot even travel around the West Bank.

In Bethlehem, tourist sites are deserted and local people bitterly denounce the new restrictions as yet another humiliation imposed by the Israeli authorities.

If the new security measures remain in place, many Palestinians who are already in dire financial straits will be plunged into a new crisis.

Israel hopes that the threat of economic hardship will lead to a reduction in violence. But our correspondent says anger is high and the restrictions could have just the opposite effect.

Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen exchanged heavy fire into Tuesday night near the Jewish settlement of Gush Katif in southern Gaza.

Gunfire was also heard near the West Bank towns of Nablus and Jericho and in the divided town of Hebron as Israeli soldiers and Palestinians exchanged fire in what has become an almost nightly ritual.