For the first time in the 16 months of violence, Israeli troops seized an entire Palestinian town (Tulkarem) and conducted house to house searches for weapons, military equipment and men wanted for terrorism. The troops imposed a curfew and it was announced they would leave after a few days. The town being searched is where terrorists who launched recent attacks came from. The major Palestinian terrorist groups had pledged to stop attacks on Israeli civilians in order to get peace negotiations going. But many of the smaller radical groups had no interest in laying off the Israeli civilians.