Bethlehem: Israeli occupation forces on Tuesday evening closed the main entrances to the village of Hussan, west of Bethlehem, according to a municipal source. Rami Hamamreh, head of the Hussan Village Council, reported that the occupation forces blocked the entrances of Al-Muteena, Al-Mushahid, and Kroum Al-Sharaqa using earth mounds and stone blocks. Additionally, the forces unleashed barrages of toxic gas canisters and sound bombs at villagers, though no injuries were reported.
According to Palestine news and Information Agency, there has been an upsurge in assaults by the occupation forces against the villages, including repeated closures of the village entrances. The Israeli forces have tightened military measures across the occupied West Bank following the release of 90 Palestinian prisoners as part of the Gaza ceasefire, which went into effect on January 19. Restrictions were further intensified under the pretext of and since the onset of the Israeli-Iranian war, leading to the dismemberment and isolation of cities and governorates from one another using military gates, barriers, and concrete blocks.
The military measures coincide with ongoing attacks by Israeli colonists across the West Bank, intended to terrorize Palestinians and displace them from their lands to seize them and build illegal Jewish colonies that separate Palestinian communities. Israel imposes severe restrictions on Palestinians' freedom of movement within the occupied West Bank through a complex combination of approximately 898 fixed and flying checkpoints and gates, including 18 gates installed since the start of 2025 and 146 others installed in the aftermath of October 7, 2023, settler-only roads, over 200 military bases, and various other physical obstructions.
Closures, along with other measures taken under the guise of security, aim to entrench Israel's 59-year-old military occupation of the West Bank and its settler colonial project, which is enforced with routine and frequently deadly violence against Palestinians.