Israel fences off West Bank towns

Israel has begun building a controversial new security fence to try to stop Palestinian militants crossing into its territory.
It is the latest effort by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to halt the wave of suicide attacks in Israeli cities and towns.

The move has angered Palestinians, who accuse Israel of seizing more of their land, and also Jewish settlers who oppose any boundary between Israel and territory it occupied in the 1967 war.


In the latest violence Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian at a checkpoint near the West Bank town of Nablus.

Israeli tanks are also reported to have moved back into Jenin, on the West Bank, after nightfall on Sunday.

Bulldozers began digging up ground at a ceremony attended by Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer.

The fence "will provide a defensive answer to the... infiltration of terrorists," said Amos Yaron of the Israeli Defence Ministry.

Few details of its exact route have been revealed.