Israelis Close Palestinian Universities

The Israeli army closed down two Palestinian universities last night, which they claimed had been used as "training grounds" for terrorist attacks.

The army said leaders of the Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas had used a chemistry lab in the faculty of science at the Hebron University to train students to make bombs.

It said that students had used computers at the Polytechnic Institute, also in Hebron, to download bomb-making guides from a Hamas website.

Arif Jaabari, the Palestinian governor of Hebron, which is divided between Palestinians and an enclave of Israeli settlers, called for lifting of the closures, describing them as collective punishment.

"Israel has no right to close universities, colleges and schools in the Palestinian territories," he said. Collective punishment is illegal under the Oslo accords.

A spokesperson for Birzeit University on the West Bank, which has also been threatened with closure, said: "We are receiving reports that at midnight last night, soldiers entered both campuses, destroyed property and seized computers. They kicked out the guards and shut the gates. They then visited the university's presidents homes with closure notices. They were told they would be closed for two weeks, which could be extended to six months."