Israel Seals Off Entrance to Bethlehem-District Town

Bethlehem, MINA – Israeli forces today sealed off the northern entrance to Nahalin town, located to the west of the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem, said a municipal source.

Head of Nahalin Council Hani Fanoun told WAFA that Israeli forces placed cement blocks at the northern entrance of the town, turning the entrance to a military checkpoint.

Two out of three entrances to Nahalin are now closed. The eastern entrance has been completely closed with an iron gate since the beginning of 2000, and the southern entrance is occasionally closed, WAFA reported.

Israeli severely restricts Palestinians’ freedom of movement through a complex combination of approximately 100 fixed checkpoints, flying checkpoints, settler-only roads and various other physical obstructions.

Closures besides to other measures, taken under the guise of security, are intended to entrench Israel’s 51-year-old military occupation of the West Bank and its settler colonial project which it enforces with routine and frequently deadly violence against Palestinians.(T/R04/P2)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)