Israel shuts Palestinian offices

Israel also tore down the home of a suicide bomber

Israel has closed down three Palestinian security liaison offices in the West Bank, some of the last remnants of peace initiatives begun in the early 1990s.

Soldiers shut a District Coordinating Office (DCO) in Nablus on Friday, ejecting Palestinian police officers and confiscating their weapons, after similar closures in Tulkarm and Qalqilya on Thursday.

"There was no point in their presence. There is no security coordination and the presence of armed men there only posed a danger," an army spokesman said.

Also on Friday, the Israeli army demolished the home of a suicide bomber, leaving six relatives homeless, and arrested three suspected militants.

Tightening controls

Palestinian Brigadier General Rifhi Arafat, commander of the Palestinian DCOs, said that by shutting them down, Israel had strengthened its occupation in the West Bank, according to Reuters news agency.

The liaison offices, conceived as part of a 1993 interim peace agreement, aimed to promote cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian security officials.

Israel has reoccupied the West Bank in response to continuing attacks

The latest closures mean that outside the Gaza Strip, only one liaison office remains open - in Jericho, the only Palestinian town not under Israeli army control.

Israel has reoccupied every substantial West Bank town apart from Jericho in the last six months, enforcing curfews and carrying out security sweeps and other operations.

These continued on Friday, as the army reported demolishing the house of a bomber at Beit Wazzin, near Nablus in the West Bank.

'Deterrent'

Darin Abu Aisheh blew herself up at an Israeli military checkpoint on 27 February 2002, wounding three policemen.

Six of her relatives were left homeless after Friday's demolition.

Punishment of the relatives of militants and suicide bombers is a deliberate Israeli tactic to try to deter other would-be attackers.

But the Palestinians say such actions amount to collective punishment and go against international law.

The Israeli army also arrested three alleged members of the militant group Islamic Jihad during operations in Hebron and Jenin.