ISRAEL: PRIME MINISTER PERES ANNOUNCES NEW SECURITY MEASURES

(28 Feb 1996) English/Nat

Israeli Prime Minister, Shimon Peres, has announced new security measures as the country remains deeply shaken following Sunday's double bombings.

Public fury with the government has meant a jump in support for opposition leader, Binyamin Netanyahu, campaigning for May's general elections.

Peres' announcement comes as yet another funeral of one of the numerous victims of the blasts is held in Jerusalem.

Calyne Zagury, was just nineteen when she came to Israel a few months ago from France.

Sunday she was killed by a suicide bomb attack in Jerusalem.

She was identified only when her parents, who flew into Israel from Paris after hearing their daughter was missing, provided a D-N-A sample.

Calyne came to Israel one and half months ago to study at Bar Ilan University.

As relatives and friends mourned Calyne's loss - Prime Minister Shimon Peres was announcing a new set of security measures.

Peres has been heavily criticised for continuing to negotiate with the Palestinians.

Today (Wednesday) he confirmed the continued closures of the West Bank and Gaza - which bars some two million Palestinians from entering Israel.

He added he would deploy more security forces in Jerusalem and in the areas bordering the West Bank and find ways to improve safety for bus travellers.

He also demanded that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat immediately disarm and arrest Muslim militants.

If he did not comply, he warned, Israel might not pull back troops in Hebron by the end of March as agreed in the Israel-PLO autonomy agreement.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We do not seek any guarantees from anybody when it comes to our own security. We don't expect Mr Arafat to provide Israel with security, we shall do it ourselves. We demand from him that he install security in his own house, and if he cannot do it, it will be a problem.
SUPERCAPTION: Shimon Peres, Israeli Prime Minister

Opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu, who has risen in the polls since the bombings, has stepped up his campaign for May's general elections.

Netanyahu is expected to make counter terrorism and personal security the main planks in his campaign.

He said that places like Hebron can be used as an outlet for the militant Muslim group Hamas to send out attackers.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"It would be wise to say to the PLO you have not kept your side of the agreement, you have not dismantled the Hamas infrastructure. We are not vacating Hebron to give the Hamas a new and important base."
SUPERCAPTION: Binyamin Netanyahu, Opposition Likud Party Leader

And, in Hebron today (Wednesday), bulldozers knocked down the homes of Palestinians to make way for a bypass for Israeli settlers.

The by-pass road is being built so that the settlers do not have to drive through Arab villages to their homes.

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