Government Lifts Ban on Gaza Workers

Israel lifted the blanket ban it had imposed on the entry of Palestinian workers from the Gaza Strip after a suicide bombing Wednesday that killed four Israeli security personnel at a border crossing.

Announcing the relatively swift end of a “general closure,” the army said Gaza laborers and merchants could enter Israel and a border industrial park near the scene of the attack by a female suicide bomber from the militant Islamic group Hamas.

The army announced no numbers and said it was acting on government orders and in accordance with security assessments. Palestinian security sources said they were told that about 15,000 Gazans could return to their jobs in Israel.