Jerusalem: Israeli occupation forces Thursday sealed off the Beit Iksa checkpoint, northwest of the occupied West Bank city of Jerusalem, according to the villagers. They reported that the occupying forces closed down the permanently staffed checkpoint, located along the internal road connecting Road 436 to the Iksa House, denying villagers, including patients, access into and out of the village. This closure resulted in hundreds of passengers experiencing lengthy delays at the checkpoint for several hours.
According to Palestine News and Information Agency - WAFA, Israel, the occupying power, has constructed a section of the apartheid wall around Beit Iksa, isolating large portions of the village land. This construction prevents landowners from accessing their properties and has pushed the village into a crowded enclave, isolated from the rest of the West Bank cities.
Israel imposes severe restrictions on Palestinians' freedom of movement within the occupied West Bank through a complex system of approximately 500 fixed checkpoints, numerous flying checkpoints, settler-only roads, over 200 military bases, and various other physical barriers. These closures and other measures, taken under the guise of security, are intended to entrench Israel's 58-year-old military occupation of the West Bank and its settler colonial project, which it enforces with routine and often deadly violence against Palestinians.
