RAMALLAH, Monday, February 10, 2020 (WAFA) – Israeli forces today sealed off the entrances to a cluster of villages to the northwest of the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Witnesses confirmed that Israeli troops closed the metal gates at the entrances of Aboud, Deir Nidham, Deir Abu Mashaal and Shuqba villages, forcing residents to take long difficult detours in order to get out of the villages and reach their destinations.

In the north of the West Bank, the Israeli army blocked with large boulders the main access road to the village of Bazaria, north of Nablus city, thus curtailing movement of vehicles in and out of the village.

Bazaria is located on the main road between the cities of Tulkarm and Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank and is considered vital for commuters on that road.

Israel severely restricts Palestinians’ freedom of movement through a complex combination of approximately 100 fixed checkpoints, flying checkpoints, settler-only roads and various other physical obstructions.

Closures besides to other measures, taken under the guise of security, are intended to entrench Israel’s 51-year-old military occupation of the West Bank and its settler colonial project which it enforces with routine and frequently deadly violence against Palestinians.

K.F./M.K.