Israel's cabinet has approved voting in Arab East Jerusalem in a Palestinian parliamentary election later this month but said it would ban the militant Hamas group from listing its candidates on ballots there.
The government approved the decision unanimously, an official said, after US pressure to lift, in the interests of Palestinian democracy, opposition to voting in East Jerusalem, whose status is at the centre of the Middle East dispute.
Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri
Palestinians had warned Israel against measures that would disrupt or postpone the parliamentary poll on January 25th, in which Hamas is participating for the first time.
Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned the cabinet's exclusion of candidates from Hamas, a group that advocates Israel's destruction, from East Jerusalem.
"All parties and candidates who registered with the Central Election Committee have the full right to campaign in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem," Mr Erekat said.
Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas spokesman, said Israel's restrictions diminished Palestinian sovereignty over the election. "Hamas and other factions are able to carry out their election campaign in many ways and in different methods despite the Zionist blackmail," Mr Masri said.
Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in a move not recognised internationally. It regards all of Jerusalem as its capital.
Palestinians want East Jerusalem as capital of a future state they hope to establish in the West Bank and Gaza.
Hamas, popular among many Palestinians for its social welfare network and anti-corruption policies, is expected to make a strong showing against the mainstream Fatah faction.
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli troops killed a Palestinian woman and her 20-year-old son in a clash near the city of Nablus, witnesses and medics said.
The army said soldiers fired back after being attacked by gunmen.