The Israeli army yesterday said that it was temporarily barring all Palestinians from entering Israel, stepping up already tough restrictions announced after Palestinian gunmen shot dead four Israelis in Tel Aviv.
An army spokeswoman told reporters that crossings to Israel from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip would be closed for Palestinians in all but “medical and humanitarian cases.”
She said that the closure would remain in force until midnight tomorrow.
Photo: AFP
However, reporters said that yesterday morning, well after the lockdown was supposed to have taken effect, Palestinians were still crossing from the occupied West Bank into Israel in large numbers in the Bethlehem and Ramallah areas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his Cabinet on Thursday and announced a slew of punitive and deterrent measures against Palestinians in the wake of Wednesday’s shooting in a popular Tel Aviv nightspot, the deadliest attack in a months-long wave of violence.
Among the measures, the government said it was revoking entry permits for more than 80,000 Palestinians to visit relatives in Israel during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, a move likely to further stoke tensions.
It also revoked work permits for 204 of the attackers’ relatives and the army blockaded their West Bank hometown of Yatta, with soldiers patrolling and stopping cars as they entered and exited.
The government also said it was sending two additional battalions — amounting to hundreds more troops — into the occupied West Bank.
Israeli Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman ordered that the bodies of Palestinians killed while carrying out attacks would no longer be returned to their families for burial, a spokesman said.
The policy is backed by Israeli hawks as a deterrent measure.
Israel last closed its crossings for two days in May during its Remembrance Day and Independence Day commemorations. A closure is often imposed over Jewish holidays, when large numbers of Israelis congregate to pray or celebrate, presenting a potential target for Palestinian attacks.
The start of April’s Passover festival saw this type of shutdown. The closure announced yesterday came as Israeli security forces deployed in Jerusalem, prepared for “thousands” of Muslim worshipers to visit the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque for prayers on the first Friday of Ramadan.
“Thousands of police will be in and around the Old City of Jerusalem carrying out security measures,” a police statement said.
Violence since October has killed at least 207 Palestinians, 32 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese.
Most of the Palestinians were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities.
Others were killed in clashes with security forces or by Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip.
The violence has declined in recent weeks, although attacks have continued.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was