JERUSALEM, Aug 14: Israel lifted a military blockade on two Palestinian cities on the West Bank early Thursday, hours after US special envoy Dennis Ross ended a mission to ease Israeli-Palestnian tensions.

An army spokesman said the blockade which prevented Palestinians from entering or leaving autonomous areas of the cities of Ramallah and Hebron had been lifted at dawn.

But blockades remained in place around Bethlehem and several villages on the outskirts of Bethlehem, and the borders between Israel and the West Bank and Gaza Strip remained sealed, the spokesman said.

The army arrested another seven suspected Islamic militants in overnight raids in the West Bank, he said, bringing to nearly 250 the number of Palestinians detained since a double suicide bombing.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.