Police Minister Moshe Shahal has said the government might consider easing the closure on the territories during the holy month of Ramadan so Muslims in those areas could pray at holy sites in eastern Jerusalem.
“The closure was imposed for security reasons,” Shahal told Israel Radio on Thursday. “We are looking at all factors, which might make it possible to let those who want to pray in Jerusalem get to those areas.”
The Israeli government imposed a closure on the West Bank and Gaza after t Jan. 22 suicide bomb attack near Netanya that killed 21 Israelis.
Some 1,000 police officers have been deployed in Jerusalem in advance of Friday prayers.
Also Thursday, two explosive charges went off in Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip. No one was injured.
Israeli Radio reported that the two devices had been placed near several greenhouses belonging to Jewish settlements.
At the same time, Israeli security forces arrested seven more suspected activists from the fundamentalist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad during a raid in the Jenin area.
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