SALFIT/NABLUS, Israeli occupation soldiers today prevented Palestinian farmers from reaching their lands located behind the segregation barrier after refusing to open the gates in the barrier and attacked people waiting at another checkpoint with tear gas.

In the city of Salfit, soldiers kept three gates in the separation barrier closed preventing farmers and landowners from reaching their lands behind the barrier in order to continue with the olive harvest, according to one of the farmers.

Khalil Ismail, who owns land behind the barrier, told WAFA that the soldiers were supposed to open the gates early in the morning to allow the farmers to reach their lands and pick the olives but they kept the gates closed.

Owners of land located behind the barrier are required by the army to obtain a permit to go through the gates and reach their lands. Permits are usually scarce and if made available are given to a few members of the family, usually the elderly who are unable to physically pick olives to work on their lands.

Meanwhile, soldiers manning a checkpoint near the town of Beit Furik, east of Nablus, fired tear gas to disperse people waiting to cross the checkpoint and prevented them from crossing it as hundreds of people have gathered in the morning hoping to cross the checkpoint on their way to their work.

Israel, as collective punishment, has imposed a tight closure on Nablus and area towns and villages for two weeks now, preventing cars and people seeking to reach their workplaces and schools to go through the checkpoints.

Source: Palestine News & Info Agency