Israel bans Palestinian travel in West Bank

ISRAEL yesterday enforced a "total ban" on Palestinian travel in much of the West Bank and sealed off a chunk of the Gaza Strip with tanks in response to Palestinian attacks on Israelis that killed 13 people over 24 hours.

Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said restrictions on Palestinian movement would be tightened further, and that troops would “maintain a much bigger closure than what we are doing now.”

The new restrictions were imposed after a bloody 24 hour period in which a Palestinian suicide bomber blew up an Israeli bus and gunmen carried out shooting attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank.