Palestine slams Israel’s ‘dismemberment’ of West Bank with checkpoints

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday condemned in the strongest terms Israel’s restriction of Palestinian movement in the occupied West Bank.

The minister said in a statement that the Israeli occupation army has erected nearly 900 checkpoints and iron gates across the occupied West Bank, not for maintaining security but for oppressing Palestinians, adding that the checkpoints severely impact Palestinians’ daily life by restricting their movement within towns, villages and refugee camps, and turn the West Bank into a large prison with hundreds of isolated areas.

The ministry described the Israeli military checkpoints as among the ugliest forms of collective punishment imposed on Palestinian citizens and families, especially during the holy month of Ramadan, explaining that the Israeli occupation army forces Palestinians to break their fast at these checkpoints, in scenes reminiscent of the worst apartheid regimes in history.

It expressed its shock at the silence of the international community in the face of Israel’s crimes of genocide, displacement and annexation.

READ: In first, Israel demolishes Palestinian homes in occupied East Jerusalem in Ramadan