In a gesture to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, Israel will grant residency permits to 3,500 Palestinians living illegally in the occupied West Bank but will not act on another 1,500 Palestinians living in Hamas-run Gaza, Israeli officials said. Many are the spouses or relatives of Palestinians who entered on travel visas. They will be the first such approvals in 10 years. On Palestinian television, Mr. Abbas repeated his view that a future Palestinian state should contain the exact area occupied by Israel in the 1967 war, essentially a return to 1967 boundaries with some land swaps.

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