A Palestinian Authority police officer was shot dead earlier this week after opening fire on Israeli soldiers stationed at an Israeli military checkpoint near the Beit El settlement near Ramallah in the West Bank.
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A few weeks ago, Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, sent a terse letter to Airbnb chief executive Brian Chesky, warning that his company was “effectively promoting the illegal Israeli colonisation of occupied land”. The military is allowing only Ramallah residents and Palestinian Authority officials to enter the city, and only residents of other cities or humanitarian cases to exit until further notice, according toYedioth Achronoth.
Palestinians seeking to leave Ramallah were also undergoing security checks, leading to frustration in lengthy queues.
In it, Erekat warned that Airbnb was “effectively promoting the illegal Israeli colonisation of occupied land”. Checkpoints near Jerusalem remained open and appeared to operate normally.
On Sunday police Sergeant Amjad Sukkar was shot dead by Israeli troops after he opened fire and wounded three of them in the city.
The Israeli High Court on Tuesday ordered the temporary suspension of the demolition of Palestinian homes that had begun in the morning in a military target-practice area south of Hebron in the West Bank.
The Israeli jpost then claimed that the three Palestinians had a rifle, knife and an explosive device when Israeli police became “suspicious” of them. Most of the attacks have been stabbings, although there have also been occasional shootings.
The three dailies reported that during a phone call with US Secretary of State John Kerry, President Mahmoud Abbas emphasized the need for Israel to stop its incursions into West Bank Palestinian cities, towns and villages and to release the bodies of Palestinians suspected of carrying out shooting or stabbing attacks.
While diplomats were not directly impacted, “the travel restriction on Palestinians is having an effect in terms of our ability to engage”, one Western diplomat said.
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In October, Israel approved new measures to crack down on violence, including allowing police to impose a closure on points of friction or incitement according to security assessments.
