More than 2,000 Palestinians in Israeli custody
The Jerusalem Post

9 March 2003

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the cabinet today that Israel has arrested more than 2,000 Palestinians in the territories in the past seven months.

Ministers, meanwhile, scheduled a visit to sites where a security barrier between Israel and the West Bank is under construction. The trip follows criticism that suicide bombings such as that in Haifa last Wednesday that killed 16 people, could better be averted if a security fence were in place.

Mofaz also told ministers that an investigation into the deaths of eight Palestinians in a Gaza refugee camp last Thursday was the result of a bomb set off in a furniture shop, and not an Israeli tank shell.