Israel sealed off the occupied Palestinian territories for fear of attacks during its carnival holiday, while a poll said Friday that most Israelis want their scandal-dogged prime minister to resign.
With the approach of Purim, Judaism's most festive celebration, on Sunday, the Israeli army announced late Thursday it was closing the crossings with the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Army radio said the closure would be enforced until Tuesday.
The army usually blocks off the occupied territories before major holidays, but this move and the mobilisation of thousands of extra security forces came amid fears of revenge attacks by Hamas after three of its militants were killed in an Israeli air strike Wednesday.
On the political front, a new poll showed that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's credibility had reached an all-time low after yet another hint of scandal tarnished his reputation.
The poll in the Yediot Aharonot daily revealed that 57 percent of Israelis do not believe Sharon is credible. Only 41 percent deemed he is, compared with 75 percent at the beginning of his mandate in February 2001.
The poll also found that a majority of Israelis want Sharon to resign.
To the question "considering the affairs in which the prime minister and his family are involved, should he resign?" 53 percent said "yes," 43 percent said "no." The remainder had no opinion.
Two-thirds also said they did not trust the current government, with only 33 percent saying they did.
The results follow revelations that Sharon had a close business relationship with the father-in-law of a kidnapped reservist colonel who was freed as part of a prisoner swap with the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah.
Sharon' standing had already been smeared by two bribery affairs for which police interrogated him.
The Maariv daily said Friday that Sharon would not order his promised evacuation of most of the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip before the US presidential elections in November.
The paper reported that Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz had told security officials the pullout would start in February or March 2005, but his office denied the reports.
Meanwhile, Mofaz was preparing for a visit Sunday to France and the United States where he will seek backing for Sharon's disengagement plan from the Palestinians, his office said.
He will meet his French counterpart Michele Alliot-Marie, before leaving for the United States on Wednesday.
Sharon is hoping to go to Washington at the end of March but no visit has yet been scheduled.
On the ground, an 11-year-old boy died of wounds he sustained last month during an Israeli air strike against Islamic Jihad militants in the Gaza Strip.
Another Palestinian teenager was severely wounded in the head when Israeli troops opened fire at stone-throwers during an incursion into the village of Jabaa, near the northern West Bank town of Jenin, medics said.
Also in the West Bank, more than 10 Israeli jeeps and armoured vehicles surrounded the Ramallah headquarters of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat where he has been stranded by the army since December 2001, an AFP correspondent reported.
But Israeli security sources said soldiers were undertaking "a routine activity" while a Palestinian security official said he had been informed by the army it had no intention of entering the compound.
In Israel, police said they had arrested an Israeli man in the northern city of Haifa in connection with a series of anti-Arab attacks across the Jewish state. Two other men were nabbed Wednesday on the same charges.
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