GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip/RAMALLAH, West Bank: Israel closed down the crossings between the Gaza Strip and Israel yesterday, preventing thousands of Palestinians from reaching their jobs, in response to a suicide bombing that killed four Israelis the day before.

The attack on Wednesday at the Erez border crossing between Israel and Gaza was the first time the Islamic militant groups Hamas sent a woman on a suicide mission, and signaled a new tactic in circumventing Israeli security checks that focus mainly on Palestinian men.

Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz imposed a one-day closure on Gaza, preventing thousands of workers from crossing into Israel yesterday, and also shutting down the Erez industrial park, where 6,000 Palestinians work. People in the impoverished Gaza Strip depend on those jobs for much of their income.

Brigadier General Gadi Shamni, the Israeli military commander in Gaza, indicated Israel would retaliate for the attack.

"I imagine that we will know how to respond at the time, place and method of our choosing,"he told Israel TV.

Thousands marched through the streets of Gaza during the funeral of the bomber Reem Raiyshi, 22, mother of two small children yesterday. Masked gunmen from both Hamas and Al Aqsa carried her coffin, draped in the Hamas green flag, the first time the rival groups marched together.

Israel usually keeps the bodies of suicide bombers, burying them in unmarked graves, to forestall celebratory funerals. The military did not say why it had decided to return Raiyshi's body to the Palestinians.

Three of those killed in the attack were Israeli immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

The Palestinian parliament yesterday approved a US$1.69 billion budget for 2004, with a deficit covering more than half that amount.

The cash-strapped Palestinian Authority hopes to collect some US$650 million from fatigued donor countries, largely to pay the salaries of more than 120,000 government employees, a large chunk of the dwindling labour force.

Palestinian officials have said that after borrowing from banks to meet the December and January payrolls, they don't know if they will be able to pay salaries in February.

(China Daily 01/16/2004 page8)