Israeli forces today continued to close Azzun town, east of the northern West Bank city of Qalqiliya, for the sixth consecutive day, according to local sources.
Deputy mayor of Azzun, Hatem Musallam, told WAFA that Israeli forces have been sealing off the metal gate at the town entrance for the sixth day in a row, while pointing that the closure is intended restrict the residents’ freedom of movement and hamper business activity.
As a result of the closure, Musallam added, over 4,000 residents will have to look for other alternative longer routes to reach their workplaces outside the town.
Azzun is surrounded on all sides by areas under Israeli military control and an Israeli settlement bloc sits directly to the south.
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 54-year-old military occupation of the West Bank and its settler colonial project which it enforces with routine and frequently deadly violence against Palestinians.
Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency