Agencies-Gaza post
For 5th consecutive day, Israel closes the main entrance of Ramallah
The main entrance of Aboud town, northeast of Ramallah, stayed closed on Monday for the fifth consecutive day, local sources said.
It said that Israeli soldiers stationed at a military watchtower at the town entrance shut the metal gate the army had set up at the gate banning the movement of cars in and out of the town and forcing the citizens to take long alternative routes to reach their houses or workplaces.
No cause was given for closing the gate to Aboud, a half-Christian, half-Muslim town surrounded by a cluster of illegal Israeli settlements.
Israel severely limits Palestinians’ freedom of movement through a complex combination of approximately 100 fixed checkpoints, flying checkpoints, settler-only roads, and various other physical obstacles.
Closures besides other dimensions, taken under the guise of security, are planned to entrench Israel’s 55-year-old military occupation of the West Bank and its settler-colonial project which it enforces with practice and frequently deadly brutality against Palestinians.
Aboud town is renowned for its many churches and monasteries, including the Orthodox Church dating back to the Byzantine period.