Hundreds of people holed up today at a Jewish settlement outpost in the West Bank, laying barbed wire and cement blocks as they vowed to prevent its evacuation.

The Israeli military has declared the Jewish section of the West Bank city of Hebron a closed zone, banning non-residents, after three days of riots by Israeli settlers and extremist backers against an order to evict Jewish squatters from the Arab market.

Thousands of troops, including anti-riot units and mounted forces, began their push into two West Bank settlements today to evict 2,000 heavily-armed extremists.

A Bedouin tribesman has confessed to selling explosives that might have been used in three car bombings targeting Israeli tourists, Egyptian security officials said today.

BOMBS killed at least 28 people in Egyptian Red Sea resorts packed with Israeli tourists, buried dozens more and sent thousands fleeing home over the border. Israel said it suspected al-Qaida involvement.

Al-Qaida terrorists were blamed today for the car bomb attacks in resorts on Egypt’s Sinai coast that are feared to have killed more than 50 people, most of them Israelis.