RAMALLAH, September 16, 2025 (WAFA) – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said that it views with extreme concern the Israeli occupation authorities' installation of additional iron gates at the remaining entrances to towns, villages, and camps in the occupied West Bank, the latest of which was the installation of a gate at the entrance to the town of Al-Eizariya.

This move raises the total number of gates cutting off the West Bank to nearly 1,000, violating the unity of the occupied territories and the geographic unity of the State of Palestine. This blatantly violates citizens' right to movement and access to their livelihoods, as well as health and educational facilities.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Ministry considered the occupation's checkpoints, iron gates, and military towers an extension of colonialism and random outposts. They are part of the division of the occupied West Bank into scattered, unconnected parts, transforming Palestinian communities into virtual closed prisons, with entry or exit prohibited except with permission from the occupation.

The Ministry warned the international community and all countries of the repercussions of installing these gates, considering them a prelude to imposing further colonial settlement control over the West Bank. The Ministry fall within the framework of the crime of gradual annexation, both declared and undeclared, in flagrant violation of international law and UN resolutions.

The Ministry also constitute an official Israeli response to the international consensus calling for an end to genocide, displacement, and annexation, and seeking to end the occupation and implement the two-state solution.

The Ministry called for urgent international action to compel the occupation to dismantle and remove these gates, halting its illegal unilateral measures, and provide international protection for Palestinians before it is too late.

Y.S