Ramallah: Israeli occupation forces on Wednesday evening sealed off several checkpoints to the north of the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, according to local sources. The forces closed the 'Atarah and 'Ein Siniya military checkpoints and the gates at the entrances of several villages, including Turmus Ayya, Yabrud, Taybeh, Nabi Saleh, Aboud, and Silwad, holding commuters for extended periods, checking their ID cards, inspecting vehicles, and causing traffic congestion.
According to Palestine News and Information Agency, the occupying forces also sealed off several checkpoints to the south of Nablus, including the Za'tara checkpoint, as well as the entrances of various villages and towns, including Al-Lubban Ash-Sharqiyya and Qabalan. Concurrently, the sources confirmed several raids in al-Mughayyir village, northeast of Ramallah, al-Khader town, south of Bethlehem, and Hizma town, northeast of Jerusalem. During these raids, soldiers ransacked stores, inspected Palestinian-licensed vehicles, interrogated commuters, and unleashed barrages of tear gas canisters at civilians' homes.
The tightened military measures come hours after the release of 90 Palestinian prisoners as part of a Gaza ceasefire that went into effect on January 19. Restrictions have been further tightened under the pretext of the ongoing Israeli-Iranian war, isolating cities and governorates from one another using military gates, barriers, and concrete blocks.
These measures are accompanied by ongoing attacks by Israeli colonists across the West Bank, aimed at terrorizing Palestinians and displacing them to seize their lands and build illegal Jewish colonies. These colonies serve to separate Palestinian communities. Israel severely restricts Palestinians' freedom of movement within the occupied West Bank through a network of approximately 898 fixed and flying checkpoints and gates, including recent installations since the start of 2025 and additional installations following October 7, 2023.
Closures and other measures, enacted under the guise of security, are intended to entrench Israel's 59-year-old military occupation of the West Bank and its settler colonial project, enforced with routine and often deadly violence against Palestinians.