Palestinian deportees allowed to go home

Both decisions were in keeping with concessions Israel made to the Palestinians at a summit earlier this month where both sides declared an end to four years of hostilities.

On Sunday, the Israeli Cabinet is set to vote on a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements this summer. Easy passage is expected.

A Palestinian negotiator told Israel Radio on Friday that the pullout would not take place under Palestinian fire but called on Israel to evacuate a military patrol road between Egypt and Gaza that was one of the deadliest spots during the hostilities.

The Cabinet is also expected to vote Sunday on a revised route of the barrier Israel is building to separate it from the West Bank. The modified route hews closer to Israel's border before the 1967 Mideast war but puts two major West Bank settlement blocs near Jerusalem on the Israeli side of the barrier.

Israel has destroyed about 2,475 Palestinian homes as a punitive measure since it captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war, including 675 in the past four years of fighting, according to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem.

House demolitions, along with other army practices such as targeted killings of Palestinian militants, were suspended after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas declared a truce earlier this month. On Thursday, they were discontinued as a matter of policy.

The military has concluded that now that things are quieter, "it's not the time to use this policy," a military official said on condition of anonymity.

Human rights groups have condemned the demolitions as collective punishment and demanded for years that they be halted.