The main entrance of Aboud village, northeast of Ramallah, remained closed today for the fifth consecutive day, according to local sources.
They said that Israeli soldiers stationed at a military watchtower at the village entrance shut the metal gate the army had set up at the entrance banning the movement of cars in and out of the village and forcing the residents to take long alternative routes to reach their homes or workplaces.
No reason was given for closing the entrance to Aboud, a half-Christian, half-Muslim village surrounded by a cluster of illegal Israeli settlements.
Israel severely restricts Palestinians’ freedom of movement through a complex combination of approximately 100 fixed checkpoints, flying checkpoints, settler-only roads and various other physical obstructions.
Closures besides other measures, taken under the guise of security, are intended to entrench Israel’s 55-year-old military occupation of the West Bank and its settler-colonial project which it enforces with routine and frequently deadly violence against Palestinians.
Aboud village is renowned for its many churches and monasteries, including the Orthodox Church dating back to the Byzantine era.
Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)