SALFIT, March 2, 2026 (WAFA) – Israeli occupation forces on Sunday evening opened fire at Palestinian-licensed vehicles near Qarawat Bani Hassan town, west of the occupied West Bank city of Salfit, according to local sources.

They said that the occupying forces fired tear gas canisters and ammunition at Palestinian-registered vehicles near the metal gate leading to the town.

The occupation forces have continued to close the metal gate installed at the entrance leading to the cluster of western Salfit villages and towns for almost all hours of the day, obstructing Palestinians’ movement and exacerbating their suffering.

The occupation forces have been tightening military measures across the occupied West Bank since hours after the release of the first batch of Palestinian prisoners as part of the Gaza ceasefire went into effect in January 2025, dismembering and isolating cities and governorates from one another using military gates, barriers, and concrete blocks.

They have severely restricted 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, settler-only roads, over 200 military bases, and various other physical obstructions.

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.

Closures besides other measures, taken under the guise of security, are intended to entrench Israel’s 59-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.