BBC News | MIDDLE EAST | 'Gentle' incursion raises Palestinian fears
Palestinians in Ramallah have been noticing a marked difference in how Israeli troops are conducting themselves in the West Bank town, compared with how the army behaved during its five-week incursion three months ago.

Speaking to the BBC, the Israeli Defence Force spokesman Olivier Rafovitz came close to acknowledging that its behaviour on that occasion had been a mistake.

"This situation is different. We are acting in a lower profile," he said.

If Israel is adopting a new approach of "gentler" incursions, it does not seem to be winning over Palestinian hearts and minds just yet.

During a brief lifting of the curfew, with just a few hours to buy food and medicines and check up on relatives, people in the West Bank still made time to demonstrate against the Israeli presence.

In fact, paradoxically, there are many Palestinians who fear that Israel's relative lack of aggression and destruction this time round bodes ill for the West Bank's future.

The Palestinian Authority's Labour Minister, Ghassan Khatib, expressed a common fear - that the military is quietly establishing the circumstances that will lead to the permanent re-occupation of the West Bank
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_2094000/2094282.stm