With thousands of tiny lights twinkling from its ceiling, and clouds of smoke rising from the rows of card tables and slot machines, the Oasis Casino on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Jericho was the glass-and-stone embodiment of improved Israeli-Palestinian relations. Co-owned by a consortium of Austrian and Palestinian investors, its income, mainly from Israeli gamblers, was reported to average $1 million a day.
But that, of course, was before the al-Aksa intifada erupted last September. Since then the casino has been closed - having featured in heavy clashes in the early days of the violence - and Jericho, like other West Bank towns, has been subjected to intermittent Israeli military blockades, with all Israelis banned from even entering city limits.
Now, though, amid rare if faint hopes of an imminent tapering off in violence, Israel is indicating that the current blockade of Jericho may shortly be lifted. And given that Palestinian workers have spent recent weeks restoring the shell-damaged casino building, and that the status of the casino is said to have featured prominently in recent contacts between Israeli and Palestinian officials, the reopening of the Oasis may be close at hand.
Israel is today holding memorial ceremonies for the 19,000 soldiers who have died in its wars since 1948, and tomorrow marks the 53rd anniversary of its independence. More than 70 Israelis have been killed in the past seven months of fighting, and in a speech at the Western Wall last night, President Moshe Katsav asserted that the country was still "fighting for its existence".
The Israeli army last night closed off the Gaza Strip and the West Bank from Israel until Friday morning, when celebrations to mark Israeli independence are over.
The Palestinians, for their part, are furiously protesting against the Israeli military response to the intifada - which has seen some 400 Palestinians killed - and demanding that Israel withdraw its forces and permit free travel between individual West Bank cities.
But the intensifying series of contacts in recent days has prompted the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, to speak with tentative optimism about the "little bit of traction now starting to take place". And that optimism was reinforced yesterday by agreement in principle from the Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, to the lifting of the Jericho blockade. Palestinian officials, he said, were confident that they could ensure security in the area.
Mr Peres's numerous rightwing opponents in government were immediately fuming. Mr Rehavam Zeevi, the Tourism Minister, said the Jericho deal was "scandalous". The Palestinians were interested in tranquility there, he said, because "they milk us" at the casino. Elsewhere, however, "they're shooting at us".
Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians and the army said three mortar bombs were fired at a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip in a separate incident yesterday. There were no injuries from the mortar bombs fired at the Gadid settlement, the army said. Palestinian police identified one of the dead men as Youssef Abu Hamda (40), a mentally disturbed resident of Shati refugee camp, Gaza. The Israeli army said they fired several warning shots but when the man continued to walk towards them after crossing the border, they shot and killed him.
In a separate incident, medical officials said Israeli troops shot and killed Iyad Dahsin Heresh (27), during a clash with stone-throwing protesters near the West Bank town of Qalqilya.
At least nine other Palestinians were wounded throughout the West Bank and Gaza, including three children, witnesses and medical sources said. Witnesses said two of the children came under fire from troops as they played in the rubble of destroyed homesin the Khan Younis refugee camp.