HAARETZ 1. SEARCHES FOR TAXI DRIVER IN RAMALLAH AREA; SUSPICION THAT HE WAS KIDNAPPED.
2. WOLF WANTS 60 OBSERVERS INSTEAD OF 10. Senior General Staff official: Release Hamas and Islamic Jihad prisoners too; release will help Abu Mazen. Sharon to meet Bush in White House at end of month. PM likely to meet Abu Mazen on Thursday. PA sets up roadblocks in Gaza in order to hinder armed persons. 3. FINANCE MINISTRY PLAN OBLIGE UNEMPLOYED TO PARTICIPATE IN INITIATED PROJECTS. Grants to single working mothers also planned. 4. Politics: Mofaz-Weisglass vs. Shalom-Yaalon. DEFENSE MINISTRY TO EXPAND STAFFWORK: STRATEGIC DIVISION TO BE REMOVED FROM IDF. 5. Settlers: City with greatest growth Upper Betar. SOON: LARGEST JEWISH CITY ON WEST BANK HAREDI. HATZOFEH 1. Searches for taxi driver who went missing on Friday; his cab was found in Beit Hanina. KIDNAPPED IN ORDER TO BARGAIN FOR RELEASE OF TERRORISTS. Taxi driver Eliyahu Gurel, 61, from Ramat Gan, called home yesterday morning and managed to say, Im OK, before call was cut off. Searches aided by trackers, paratroopers, helicopters and sniffer dogs focusing on Judea and Samaria. Police asking that passengers who traveled in his cab on Friday to contact nearest police station. 2. HAMAS ACTIVISTS ATTACK GAZA PREVENTIVE INTELLIGENCE STATION WITH FRAGMENTATION GRENADES. 3. LABOR KNESSET FACTION TO TOUR GAZA STRIP TODAY. PERES: EVACUATE ENTIRE STRIP. 4. SYRIA: READY FOR NEGOTIATIONS WITH ISRAEL ON BASIS OF POINT WHERE THET LEFT OFF. ISRAEL: READY, WITHOUT ANY PRECONDITIONS. 5. DEADLY WEEKEND ON ROADS: FOUR KILLED. MAARIV 1. Praying for him. Fear: Missing taxi driver being held in Ramallah. KIDNAPPED. Eliyahu Gurel, taxi driver from Ramat Gan, left Tel Aviv for Jerusalem on Friday. Several hours later, taxi was found in Jerusalem Beit Hanina neighborhood but he had vanished. Security establishment suspects that he was kidnapped by Palestinians in order to bargain for release of prisoners. YEDIOT AHRONOT 1. Missing man phoned his family, said, Im OK, and was cut off. KIDNAPPED. Searches for taxi driver Eliyahu Gurel, 61, whose cab was found in eastern Jerusalem. Cellular phone signals found to be in territories. Assessment: Bargaining card for release of prisoners. 2. ISA HUNTING IRISH TERRORIST OPERATING IN TERRITORIES. British newspaper The Observer reports that he is bomb-making expert. ______________________________ SUMMARY OF EDITORIALS FROM THE HEBREW PRESS Hatzofeh asserts that the recent allocation of NIS 123 million to Shinui for the funding of various projects proves that Shinui is no different from any other party when it comes to disbursements outside regular budgetary frameworks. Yediot Ahronot laments what it perceives as the lack of any genuine discussion of socio-economic priorities in Israel. Yediot Ahronot, in its second editorial, remarks on a recently published statistic that the suicide rate in Israel has risen by 60% in the last 50 years.
