BETHLEHEM, September 2, 2025 (WAFA) – Israeli occupation forces on Tuesday set up a gate at the entrance of al-Maniya village, southeast of the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, according to a local source.

Zayed Kawazba, head of al-Maniya Village Council, said that the occupying forces erected a gate at the southeastern entrance of the village.

On Monday, the gun-toting soldiers erected two gates at the western and southern entrances of the village, effectively sealing off all entrances to the village and denying the villagers access to the city of Bethlehem.

The occupation forces have tightened military measures across the occupied West Bank hours after the release of 90 Palestinian prisoners as part of the Gaza ceasefire went into effect on January 19, dismembering and isolating cities and governorates from one another using military gates, barriers, and concrete blocks.

The Israeli military measures are in parallel with ongoing attacks by Israeli colonists across the West Bank to terrorize Palestinians and displace them from their lands to seize them and build illegal Jewish colonies that separate Palestinian communities.

Israel severely restricts Palestinians’ freedom of movement within the occupied West Bank through a complex combination of approximately 898 fixed and flying checkpoints and gates, including 18 gates that have been installed since the start of 2025 and 146 others installed in the aftermath of October 7, 2023, colonist-only roads, over 200 military bases, and various other physical obstructions.

Closures, besides other measures, taken under the guise of security, are intended to entrench Israel’s 58-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.