Some 5,000 more West Bank Palestinian workers will be granted permits to enter Israel.
On Sunday, the Israeli Cabinet approved the request by Defense Minister Ehud Barak to allow the additional permits to help alleviate a shortage of workers and satisfy a proposal he made to Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during their meeting last month in Israel.
The additional 5,000 workers, many of whom already work illegally in the Jewish state, will bring to approximately 20,000 the number of Palestinians working legally in Israel, many of them in the construction industry.
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