Israel permits Palestinian workers to enter Israel

The Israeli authorities yesterday permitted some 5,000 Palestinian workers from the Gaza Strip and another 2,000 from the West Bank to cross into Israel to work in compliance with measures for lifting the partially-imposed military closure against the two areas.

Israeli radio said that some 3,000 Palestinian traders were permitted to cross into Israel from the West bank.

For his part, Israeli Minister of Trade and Industry Natan Sheransky told reporters today in Jerusalem that an agreement was reached with the Palestinian side to form a joint committee in charge of giving solutions to problems suspended in the commercial field between the Israeli and the Palestinian sides.

In a meeting he held today with Palestinian trade and industry official Maher al-Masri in Jerusalem, Sheransky pledged to work to maintain the flow of Palestinian workers from the West Bank and Gaza Strip into Israel and not to seal the industrial areas.

He added that the improvement of economic conditions in the West Bank falls in the context of serving Israel's economic interests, Israeli radio reported.