RAMALLAH, Tuesday, March 23, 2021 (WAFA) – Israeli forces sealed off the entrances to a number of villages to the northwest of Ramallah, in occupied West Bank, said WAFA correspondent.

Israeli forces sealed off entrances to the villages and towns of Nabi Saleh, Beit Rima, Dir Ghassaneh, Kafr Ein, Qarawat Bani Zeid, Deir Nidham, Deir Abu Mashaal, and Aboud, and prevented traffic in both directions, causing a major traffic jam.

Clashes reportedly broke out between the forces and Palestinians in Deir Abu Mashaal, during which forces fired tear gas canisters toward the Palestinians, however, no injuries or arrests were reported.

Restricting movement is one of the main tools Israel employs to enforce its regime of occupation. Israel imposes restrictions on the movement of Palestinians within the West Bank, and travel between it and the Gaza Strip, into East Jerusalem, Israel, and abroad, said B’Tselem, the Israelis information center for human rights in occupied territories.

“Palestinians’ freedom of movement in the Occupied Territories lies completely at the mercy of the state’s whims, the instructions given to soldiers at the local (DCO), and the way in which they implement them, it said.

In July 2018, OCHA completed a comprehensive ‘closure survey’ that recorded 705 permanent obstacles across the West Bank restricting or controlling Palestinian vehicular, and in some cases pedestrian, movement. This figure is three per cent higher than in December 2016, the date of the previous survey.

Road obstacles are an integral component of a broader system of access restrictions, citing security reasons, that impedes the movement of Palestinians within the West Bank and contributes to geographical fragmentation, said OCHA.

T.R.