Jerusalem ? Israel struck back at the Palestinians on Monday following a day of deadly attacks, firing missiles at a suspected weapons factory in the Gaza Strip and announcing a ban on Palestinian travel in the northern West Bank.

At the same time, however, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer met with the Palestinian interior minister, Abdel Razak Yehiyeh, to discuss plans for a cease-fire that would allow for Israeli troops to leave Palestinian areas, Palestinian officials and Israel Army Radio said.

Palestinians run for cover following an Israeli helicopter attack in a neighborhood in Gaza City. Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a suspected weapons factory Monday, injuring four people in a strike that followed attacks on Israelis that killed 13 people in 24 hours.

In the missile strike late Monday, four people were lightly injured when Israeli helicopters fired three missiles at a spare car parts factory in Gaza City’s Zeitouni neighborhood, which is known as a hub for the militant group Hamas, witnesses said.

Israel Army Radio said the building targeted was a suspected weapons factory.

Three buildings, located near a mosque, were damaged, and one of the missiles didn’t explode, witnesses said. Firefighters doused a small blaze that ignited at the scene.

Salim Bahtiti, 25, son of the factory owner, angrily denied the shop was used to make weapons.

“I challenge all the experts of this world to come and to see if our metal work shop can be used to produce any kind of weapons,” he said, pointing to the charred remains of his spare car parts machines.

“This is a war against the Palestinian economy. The Israelis are now targeting the national industry,” he said. “It’s another part of the brutal war.”

The strike was the first on Gaza since an Israeli F-16 dropped a 1-ton bomb July 22 on a Gaza City block, killing the military leader of the militant group Hamas, Salah Shehadeh, and 14 other people, nine of them children.

The bombing prompted international condemnation as well as a rare rebuke from the White House because of the high civilian toll. It also prompted Hamas to vow revenge.

Hamas has since claimed responsibility for two deadly attacks: a bombing at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University that killed seven people, five of them Americans, and a suicide bombing on a bus Sunday that killed nine passengers.

In all, Sunday’s toll reached 13, with shooting attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank. Three assailants were also killed.

Following the attacks, Israel on Monday said it would bar Palestinian travel in much of the northern West Bank and it sent tanks to seal off the Rafah refugee camp and a nearby one in southern Gaza.

The measures broaden the already tight restrictions Israel has imposed on seven major West Bank cities and towns in a bid to stop terror attacks, including rolling curfews that keep Palestinians at home for days on end.

Under the new travel ban, Palestinians will not be able to drive in the northern half of the West Bank, among the towns of Nablus, Jenin, Qalqiliya, Tulkarem and Ramallah, the army said. Some movement will be permitted in the southern West Bank, including the towns of Hebron, Bethlehem and Jericho.

“We are in a situation of total closure in the area of Samaria,” Ben-Eliezer said, using the biblical name for the northern West Bank. “Nobody enters, and nobody leaves. There is no movement between the towns and villages.”

Palestinians trying to get to jobs and schools often use dirt roads to get around military checkpoints. The military said Monday’s announcement of a “total ban” on Palestinian traffic meant that existing blockades would be strictly enforced, with more checkpoints and more troops stationed at them. Exemptions would be made in humanitarian cases, the military said.

In Gaza, about 25 tanks took up positions on the main north-south road, cutting off the southern town of Rafah and an adjacent refugee camp from the rest of the strip.

Attack goes awry

Hours after the clampdown was announced, a car exploded in northern Israel, killing one person and injuring another. Police and rescue officials said it appeared the slain passenger was a Palestinian militant en route to carrying out an attack.

Israeli media said the Palestinian had forced his way into the car of an Arab Israeli hotel guard who tried to flee as soon as he learned the man was planning an attack. The Palestinian apparently detonated his explosives belt prematurely, killing himself and injuring the driver.

The area of the blast, on the edge of the West Bank, is not far from where Sunday’s bus bombing occurred and has been the site of several other recent attacks.

The blast occurred as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak invited Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to peace talks in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Officials from both sides said they had received no formal invitation.

Israeli officials had said meetings between Cabinet ministers were on hold following Sunday’s carnage. But Ben-Eliezer met Monday in Jerusalem with Yehiyeh, both sides said.

A statement from Ben-Eliezer’s office said the minister presented Yehiyeh with his “Gaza First” proposal, which calls for Palestinians to take over security in the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank Israel has occupied in exchange for Israel easing restrictions on Palestinians. That proposal would also allow for Israeli troops to withdraw once Palestinians assume full control, Palestinians have said.

Israelis shoot youth

Israel, meanwhile, maintained its stronghold on the West Bank city of Nablus, with tanks and troops patrolling what Israel says is the new hub of Palestinian suicide bombers.

In the Balata neighborhood of Nablus, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 15-year-old Palestinian boy who was outside his home while the curfew was on, doctors said. The army said it was checking the report.

Israeli troops arrested Mazen Foqha, a senior Hamas activist in the West Bank, on suspicion that he supplied the explosives for Sunday’s bus attack. Palestinians said he headed the Hamas military wing in the Jenin district.

Sunday’s spate of attacks raised questions about the army’s dwindling repertoire of responses, since troops have already occupied seven West Bank towns and cities.

Israel’s Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order Monday preventing demolitions of the homes of assailants a practice Israel has revived recently after 33 Palestinian families petitioned the court, Israel TV reported. The restraining order is in effect until the court makes a final decision, expected Tuesday.

Another proposed deterrent, the deportation of relatives of attackers, is also being challenged in court. Ben-Eliezer said he hoped to go ahead with the deportations.