BETHLEHEM, July 15, 2026 (WAFA) – Israeli occupation forces on Wednesday evening blocked the main entrance to the western countryside of Bethlehem governorate, according to local sources.

Rami Hamamreh, head of the Husan Village Council, reported that the occupation forces sealed off the entrance at the al-Shouli area using an iron gate. The road serves as the main access route to the towns of Battir and Nahhalin, as well as the villages of Husan and Wadi Fukin.

He added that the gun-toting soldiers stopped Palestinian-licensed vehicles, searched them, and checked passengers’ ID cards, causing severe traffic congestion.

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. Such restrictions were further tightened under the pretext of and since the onset of the Israeli-Iranian war, 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, settler-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 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.