1 Israel's Cabinet on Sunday extended a three-week long closure that has economically paralyzed the West Bank and Gaza Strip, hours before President Clinton implicitly urged that the restrictions be lifted.
2 Ministers demanded a tougher crackdown by PLO leader Yasser Arafat on militant groups responsible for a spate of attacks that have killed 55 Israelis since Oct. 1.
3 The closure which bars tens of thousands of Palestinians from working in Israel, was imposed Jan. 22 after a suicide bombing that killed 21 Israelis near Netanya.
4 Islamic militants were permitted to 'parade with weapons' in Gaza, Economics Minister Shimon Shitreet told reporters after the weekly meeting. 'He (Arafat) has 9,000 policemen. Let them work, let them disarm them.'
5 The Cabinet stopped short of taking a formal vote on the closure, but the lack of a vote in effect extended the measure.
6 Officials wanted to keep the closure in place until after Wednesday, when they are bracing for violence for when Muslims mark a year's anniversary since a Jewish settler massacres 29 Palestinians at prayer in a Hebron mosque.
7 Many bombings in the past year by Islamic militants have been billed as retaliation for the mosque slayings.
8 'We just want to see Wednesday pass quietly,' a senior official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Afterwards Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Arafat would take up the issue in a summit on Thursday, officials said.
9 A Rabin-Arafat summit last Thursday ended in deadlock over the closure issue, prompting United States intervention.
10 Clinton urged parties to overcome terrorism and continue working for peace. He also implicitly urged Israel to lift the closure that has barred tens of thousands of Palestinians from earning livelihoods in Israel.
11 Arafat hailed Clinton's remarks. Reading a statement by telephone to The Associated Press in Gaza City, after Clinton's news conference in Washington, Arafat's spokesman Nabil Abu Irdeineh urged more 'American intervention to save the peace process, so that a just and comprehensive peace will prevail in the region.'
12 Arafat called again for speedy movement toward implementing the next phase of the autonomy agreement, which Israel has frozen citing the latest terror attacks.
13 The self-rule granted the Gaza Strip and West Bank town of Jericho last May was supposed to have been expanded shortly afterwards through the West Bank.
14 Clinton said after meeting Middle East foreign ministers in Washington that while he understood Israeli security problems, 'we cannot allow (rising terrorism) to kill the Palestinian dream.'
15 Palestinian Finance Minister Ahmed Qureia warned that resolving the closure was crucial to making peace work. Unless Gazans had jobs, 'I don't see a good way of maintaining a comprehensive peace,' he said.
16 Industry Minister Micha Harish said he expected the closure would soon be eased.
17 But other Cabinet Ministers suggested that sharp restrictions would be maintained on numbers of Palestinians permitted to work in Israel.
18 Agriculture Minister Yaacov Tsur said that the closure was 'turning into a positive phenomenon that is reducing the numbers of Palestinian workers so that even in regular times we will see fewer and fewer Palestinians,' working in Israel.
19 Harish and Qureia meanwhile announced plans to build half a dozen industrial parks along Israel's borders with the West Bank and Gaza, to alleviate a need for Palestinians to travel through Israel for employment.
20 They said they hoped for American and European investment for the projects.
21 'The long-term solution of cooperation will mean development of the Palestinian (economy),' Harish said. 'We see a common interest in long-term development.'
22 Meanwhile, Energy Minister Gonen Segev was meeting Qureia on Monday to discuss resolving an oil shortage caused since Israel's ban on shipping oil to Gaza since a Feb. 6 slaying of a tanker guard.

Ministers demanded a tougher crackdown by PLO leader Yasser Arafat on militant groups responsible for a spate of attacks that have killed 55 Israelis since Oct . 1 .
PLO
what is this acronym?