The entire West Bank was closed off until Sunday in a bid to avert the threat of attacks during Israel's most popular holiday, which begins on Saturday, with extra police deployed at markets and synagogues.
A suicide attack during Passover in 2002 at a hotel in Netanya in northern Israel killed 29 people, the bloodiest attack of the four-year Palestinian uprising or intifada.
Passover commemorates the Jewish exodus from Egypt and is celebrated by 95 percent of Israeli Jews, with the traditional meal of Seder marking the beginning of Passover week on Saturday.
The army said that some Palestinians could travel to Israel for "humanitarian reasons", in coordination with Palestinian authorities, while tight restrictions remained in place in the occupied Gaza Strip.
The increased security came as an opinion poll showed that the majority of Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip would not resist Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's controversial plan to evacuate them.
The survey said that 64 percent of those questioned did not intend to resist the evacuation, while 33 percent were ready to oppose the move although only 4 percent said that they would resort to force.
Right-wing settler leaders and rabbis have called for resistance in one form or another, with some calling on security forces to disobey orders to evict all 8,000 Gaza settlers and four isolated West Bank outposts.
But almost 50 percent of settlers questioned said "the military command's order to evacuate counts more than that of rabbis opposed to the withdrawal", said the poll published in the Yedioth Ahronoth daily.
The prospect of settler resistance, the possible use of force by Israeli security forces and the likelihood of militant groups wanting to portray the withdrawal as a retreat under fire have created a delicate situation for both Israelis and Palestinians.
But army chief of staff General Moshe Yaalon said that he expected Palestinians to refrain from such attacks following the Gaza pullout.
"It will be in their interests to show that calm has returned following the withdrawal," Yaalon told army radio.
Israel's two chief rabbis meanwhile appealed to settlers not to oppose the evacuation.
"We must at all costs avoid violence," said Ashkenazi chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, calling on the settler "majority who respect the law to influence the minority" who might disobey.
Metzger also appealed to security forces to show sensitivity during the withdrawal.
Sephardi chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar told army radio that the evacuation was "the will of God" and that the Jewish people have "known tougher challenges", joining calls for the move to happen peacefully.
Amar said that he had sent a letter to Israeli rabbis asking them not to incite disobedience among settlers or security forces, as several extremist rabbis have already done.
"I know that some rabbis think differently but I've asked the most venerated rabbis of our generation and they share my opinion," he said.
Israeli defense minister Shaul Mofaz and Palestinian civil affairs minister Mohammed Dahlan announced that they had set up joint committees to coordinate the Israeli and Palestinian sides of the withdrawal during a meeting on Thursday.
The announcement came the day after Mofaz and other defense chiefs recommended that the four-week withdrawal - originally planned for July - be delayed until the middle of August.
A source close to Sharon said that the premier would announce a three-week delay to the pullout in coming days, while his deputy Shimon Peres told army radio that he supported "a two-week delay".
Sharon said earlier this week that he was in favor of a slight delay to the pullout for religious reasons linked to the commemoration of the destruction of the Jewish Temple.
As coordination efforts stepped up, hopes remained for an informal truce declared by militant groups that has been in place since January despite alleged violations committed by both sides.
In the latest incident on Friday Israeli troops swooped on the main northern West Bank city of Nablus in an unsuccessful bid to arrest two local chiefs of the radical Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a spokesman for the movement said.
"Around 30 [army] jeeps entered the Balata refugee camp to try and arrest Alaa Saltah, 26, and Ahmed Abou Saltah, 27," the spokesman said.
"Both managed to escape but Abou Saltah was slightly injured in the leg during an exchange of fire," he added.
© 2005 Agence France-Presse
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