RAMALLAH, Feb 11: Israel cancelled plans on Tuesday to relax its tight grip on Palestinian movement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha, citing a surge in suicide bombing threats.

In new violence, the Israeli army said troops killed an armed Palestinian in Gaza as he entered an off-limits area near an army post on the border between the desert strip and Israel.

Israeli authorities announced on Sunday that travel curbs imposed in a bid to dampen the 28-month-old Palestinian uprising against occupation would be eased during the four-day Eid holiday.

But the government rescinded its decision because of what it called a serious increase in intelligence alerts about Palestinian militants trying to sneak across the West Bank’s porous border into Israel to carry out suicide bombings.

The continued clampdown prevents Palestinians from visiting relatives and friends in other towns during the holiday.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Ahmed Korei, a top Palestinian official, had met last week to discuss a possible Israeli army pullback from West Bank cities where Palestinian security services undertook to prevent attacks by militants.

After a spate of suicide bombings last year, Israeli troops reoccupied most West Bank territory that had enjoyed self-rule since interim peace deals a decade ago. The army also tightened restrictions on movement between towns in Gaza.

“They are insisting to do this against our people,” Palestinian President Yasser Arafat told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Tuesday. “But our people are very strong and the mountain cannot be shaken by the wind.”

But Palestinians cut off from their families were angry.

“This is in breach of all human values,” said Kamal Assad, a 35-year-old Ramallah shopowner who had planned to visit his parents in the West Bank city of Jenin for the holiday.

Israel’s original plan to ease the closure would also have allowed Palestinians to obtain permits to enter Israel to visit relatives and pray at the Al Aqsa mosque.

An army spokesman attributed the extended closure to “many intelligence reports on the intentions of terrorist organisations to carry out (new) attacks”.

Israeli army radio said Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz decided to keep Palestinians grounded after reports militants were planning double suicide attacks — two bombers in each location.

Salam Jaber, a 42-year-old engineer in Ramallah, questioned Israel’s motives. “I don’t know how Israel can achieve security by banning family reunions on holidays like these,” he said.

Sharon’s right-wing Likud party was resoundingly returned to power in elections last month based on widespread support for his military measures against Palestinians.

But the United States, Israel’s guardian ally, wants calm in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as it accelerates preparations for a possible war to disarm Iraq.

The new high-level Israeli-Palestinian dialogue pursued by Sharon, envisaging a temporary truce, was expected to continue this week despite doubts such a deal can work given vows by militants to keep fighting.

Sharon’s first direct contact with Palestinians in a year coincided with his attempts to coax into his next coalition his main rival, the centre-left Labour Party, which demands a resumption of peace talks with Palestinians.

Labour has so far ruled out joining a Sharon-led government unless he commits to fresh peace negotiations and withdrawals — both troops and Jewish settlers — from some occupied territory.

Sharon has said he wants a “national unity” coalition at a time of possible upheaval in the Middle East over Iraq.

Coalition talks were continuing on Tuesday.—Reuters