The Ministry of Tourism has ordered the cancellation of all guided tours to the West Bank and the Golan Heights for Israelis and foreign visitors, it was learned today. The action was said to have followed a “reappraisal of the situation” after last week’s grenade incident in Nablus in which six foreign tourists were injured and terrorist attacks on tourist buses in the Hebron area which claimed the lives of two American tourists in recent months. The order does not affect the right of anyone to enter the occupied areas at their own risk. The southern Sinai, including Sharm el-Sheikh and Jericho, on the West Bank are still on the tourist map although the Gaza Strip has been barred to tourists for some time. Some observers saw the move reflecting an increasingly grave security situation in the occupied territories. They pointed out that tourism has been at record highs for the past two years and the government would not do anything to discourage the movement if it could avoid it. There were also economic implications for the tourist industry in the new order.
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