Conflicts & War

Israel imposes travel restrictions on West Bank’s Jenin following attacks

Jerusalem, Apr 10 (EFE).- Israeli authorities have imposed travel restrictions on the northern West Bank district of Jenin, officials said Sunday, as arrest operations continued in the city following recent deadly attacks in Israel.

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) restricted pedestrians and vehicles from passing to and from the two military checkpoints in Jenin.

The Israeli military body that engages in coordinating civilian issues in the occupied Palestinian territories banned merchants and businessmen with permits from entering Israel and also suspended the entry permits of some 5,000 Palestinians living in Jenin.

However, COGAT will continue allowing the movement of Palestinians working in Israel.

Israel is tightening security after a spate of four attacks in just over two weeks that have killed 14 people.

The last two attacks — one in Tel Aviv on Thursday and the other in Bnei Brak city last week — were perpetrated by Palestinians from Jenin, prompting the Israeli forces to carry out sweeping arrest campaigns in the area.

On Saturday, an Israeli raid in the Jenin refugee camp triggered armed clashes with local groups, killing a Palestinian from the armed wing of Islamic Jihad.

The Israeli army early on Sunday said it had carried out an extensive anti-terrorist operation in Jabad, a town near to Jenin.

Israeli “special forces apprehended 8 terrorist suspects, confiscated weapons and an explosive prepared for a future attack,” the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) wrote on Twitter.

The Palestinian health ministry, meanwhile, said Sunday that 12 people were injured amid the Israeli raids in Jenin and other areas in the West Bank.

Akram Rajoub, the Palestinian governor of Jenin, condemned Israel’s restrictions on movement, calling it “a punishment on all of Jenin.”

Israel has controlled Palestinian borders since the Six-Day War in 1967 when it occupied the territories of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. EFE

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