News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) The Gilboa (Jalma) checkpoint, north of the Samarian Palestinian Authority city of Jenin, was officially dedicated Tuesday morning. The ceremony was conducted in the presence of Vice Premier Silvan Shalom, Minority Affairs Minister Avishai Braverman, Envoy Tony Blair of the Quartet of Middle East peace broker nations and representatives of the Defense Ministry and the United States Agency for International Development.

The checkpoint is intended to give access to hundreds Israeli Arab Jenin-area commercial vehicles to bring merchandise to areas of Israel. It has been in operation for three weeks, and the defense establishment said it has not seen any security risk resulting from it.