Tel Aviv  - Israel has for the past year been cracking down on Gazans living or staying temporarily in the West Bank, in some cases forcibly expelling them back to the salient, an Israeli human rights group said Wednesday.

The move is part of an Israeli policy of separating the Palestinian populations of the Gaza Strip and West Bank, B'Tselem said in a position paper.

Israel severely curtails the freedom of movement between the two areas, because it fears that militants of the radical Islamic Hamas movement would exploit free passage to "export" militants to the West Bank and build up its influence there.

Since November 2007, Israel has required Palestinians registered as Gaza residents to apply for temporary permits to remain in the West Bank.

The move came shortly after Hamas violently seized sole control of Gaza in June of that year from the rival Fatah movement of moderate President Mahmoud Abbas.

Palestinians whose registered address is in Gaza must apply for the permits, even if they have lived in the West Bank for many years, established their homes there, and, in some cases, even if they were born in the West Bank, B'Tselem said.

The Israeli army has been actively implementing the measure, locating and expelling Palestinians who lack the permit to the Gaza Strip, on the grounds they are staying in the West Bank "illegally."

The new permit regime tears families apart, puts thousands of Palestinians whose address is officially registered as Gaza at risk of expulsion from the West Bank, and turns them into "illegals" in their own home, B'Tselem charged.

Palestinians wishing to enter Gaza must sign an undertaking not to return to the West Bank, while Palestinians from Gaza wishing to enter the West Bank for medical treatment or family visits must deposit a large sum of money to guarantee their return to Gaza, it said.

"Israel is exploiting the hardship of families which are split between the West Bank and Gaza Strip," B'Tselem charged.

It cited an example in which a Gazan bride and her parents who wanted to travel to the West Bank for the wedding ceremony were required to deposit 20,000 Israeli shekels (more than 5,500 dollars) to guarantee their return to Gaza - including the bride.

In another instant, a resident of the northern West Bank city of Qalqiliya wishing to enter the Gaza Strip to visit her ill husband was informed by the Israeli military that the visit would be approved only if she undertook never to return to her West Bank home.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry was not immediately available for a reaction.

Israel says that unchecked movement between the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and the Abbas-ruled West Bank would pose a security threat, charging Hamas would exploit this to train militants in Gaza and send them back to the West Bank to carry out attacks against Israelis.

It has also long feared the transfer by Gaza militants of their rocket-launching expertise to the West Bank, putting at risk major Israeli population centres, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, as well as Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport.

But in its statement issued Wednesday, B'Tselem called the Israeli policy "a violation of Palestinians' rights to freedom of movement, to family life and to choose where they wish to live."

It urged the international community to protest the rights violations, and demanded Israel "immediately" renew the freedom of movement between the two areas and avoid any forced expulsions from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip. (dpa)