Israel Places Occupied West Bank Under Siege Amid Escalations with Iran
Rabat — As Israel escalates its war with Iran—initiated by Israel last Friday—the occupying regime has imposed a harsh lockdown on the West Bank. Entrances to Palestinian cities and villages are sealed off with iron gates and concrete barriers, trapping communities under siege.
Beyond these closures, Israel has drastically restricted Palestinian movement through an intensified network of checkpoints, severely limiting entry and exit across large swaths of the territory.
Palestinian sources confirm a surge in Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) presence in key West Bank cities including el-Bireh and Ramallah, while stringent checkpoints cripple movement in Nablus, Hebron, Qalqilya, and the Jordan Valley.
Farmers in these regions are unable to tend their land or transport produce, as Israeli-imposed barriers choke the local economy.
'The ongoing closures have paralyzed daily life across the West Bank, severely restricting mobility, cutting off access to essential services, and devastating economic activity,' reports the Palestinian News and Info Agency, Wafa.
Local reports detail mounting violence across the West Bank as Palestinians approaching checkpoints have been met with live gunfire, stun grenades, and tear gas from the IOF.
In one instance in the Tulkarem refugee camp alone, a 16-year-old was shot in the leg during these brutal crackdowns. Night raids have led to at least 15 arrests, as ambulances face deliberate obstruction preventing critical medical aid from reaching the wounded.
'Even with Israeli military permission, we are held at checkpoints for hours before passage,' explains Fayez Abdel Jabbar, an ambulance driver, to Al Jazeera. 'This morning, one woman waited three hours at a checkpoint. We now have to transfer patients between ambulances just to navigate these brutal restrictions.'
These assaults are part of a broader pattern of intensified aggression against Palestinians in the West Bank since January. By mid-2025, more than 40,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced, the largest uprooting of indigenous people since the 1967 occupation began. Large-scale demolitions of homes and infrastructure continue unabated.
Amnesty International reports an alarming spike in detentions, with over 1,000 Palestinians arrested since the start of the year—a clear tactic of oppression and intimidation by the IOF.
Adding to their affliction of life under occupation, Palestinians are also caught in the crossfire of the Israel-Iran conflict, as the indigenous population in the West Bank bear the brunt without protection.
Iranian missiles intercepted by Israel have left debris falling in Palestinian areas where no bomb shelters or safety measures exist, exposing civilians to grave danger under Israel's apartheid regime.
'Palestinians are trapped between Iranian projectiles and Israeli missile interceptions,' observes Al Jazeera's correspondent Nida Ibrahim.
Meanwhile, footage circulating online shows Israeli settlers chanting the racist anti-Arab slogan, 'May your village burn,' as an Iranian missile struck Tamra near Haifa, killing four Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Adding to this brutality, the IOF is forcibly occupying Palestinian homes—expelling families and converting residences into military outposts to shield themselves from Iran's retaliatory attacks–a blatant breach of international law that Israel has grown accustomed to doing without consequence.
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