The Israeli authorities apparently have backed away from taking reprisals against the British consul general in East Jerusalem, Ivan Callan, who entered a closed military zone in the West Bank last week without permission.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Yossi Amihud said Sunday that the ministry has made no decision yet.
Amihud was quoted Saturday by Israel Television as saying measures were being considered. On Sunday, however, he claimed he was misquoted.
“The Foreign Ministry will relate to the subject in all its possible aspects on receiving all the details,” Amihud said.
Callan entered two West Bank towns near Jerusalem. One is Beit Sahur, where the 10,000 inhabitants, mainly Christian Arabs, have been on a tax strike for the past month.
The Israel Defense Force clamped a curfew on the town last week, permitting no one to enter or leave. Callan nevertheless went there on Wednesday.
A general strike was observed Saturday in the Gaza Strip to protest prison conditions. It was called by Hamas, the Islamic resistance movement whose spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yasin, is in prison.
After observing the strike, Gaza Strip laborers went to their jobs in Israel the next day, a military spokesman reported Sunday.
In other developments, a 10-year-old Arab boy was wounded in the chest Saturday by a plastic bullet during a clash with Israeli security forces in the Gaza Strip.
The youngster, Yusef Hassan Abureallah, was reported in moderate condition at a local hospital.
Meanwhile, Arab assassination squads continued to target fellow Arabs suspected of collaborating with the Israeli authorities.
The latest victim was a 24-year-old gardener from Rafah, in the Gaza Strip, who was shot in the head twice while pruning trees at a local school.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
