Governorate asks residents to avoid Jeet Junction

Ramallah: The Nablus Governorate, on Thursday night, warned Palestinians against crossing the Jeet Junction, urging them to avoid the area for the time being.

They reasoned that colonists, gathering at the junction, could pose a serious threat to Palestinians trying to gain access to the area.

The governorate said in an official statement that crossing Jeet — which connects Nablus and the surrounding villages to Qalqilia and its surrounding villages — is extremely dangerous, since colonists are prone to attacking all Palestinian vehicles with stones and empty bottles.

The governorate urged Palestinians to be extremely careful should they be in close proximity to these dangerous areas.

It added that the attacks — wherein colonists ambush Arab vehicles in several areas of the West Bank — have intensified since Thursday.

Checks in place

Meanwhile, the Israeli Army posted several military vehicles — on what had earlier been the key checkpoints — at the entrances and exits of the cities and villages, making the traffic movement extremely difficult for Palestinians who have been denied access to and from the West Bank.

Eyewitness accounts reveal that the checkpoints have been activated — just as they were in the early days of the Al Aqsa Uprising — with every vehicle being searched and passengers' ID cards screened.

This has resulted in a trip from Tulkarem to Nablus — which is less than 30 kilometres — taking over four hours or more. Sources said that the army had also instructed many passengers to return, while restricting them from entering the area for no apparent reason.

Cordoned off

The colonists had allegedly also sealed the city of Jericho and destroyed all vehicles belonging to Arabs. Sources from Jericho said that their city has been sealed by colonists and that the Israeli army's forces were protecting them.

Sources added that the army had been turning Palestinians down while preventing them from entering Jericho, to avoid a potential attack on colonists refusing to step back from the entrances and exits of the city.

In a rare incident, some residents from the Palestinian areas reacted to the Israeli aggression by throwing stones.

A 12-year-old Israeli girl suffered moderate injuries after some of the stones landed on the car in which she and her family were travelling.

The Israeli army arrived at the scene in huge numbers and closed the entire area, fixing checkpoints on all roads leading to areas frequented by Arabs.