Israel on Thursday prohibited Palestinians from the occupied West Bank from visiting Jerusalem during Ramadan following a deadly shooting attack one day earlier in Tel Aviv in which four Israelis were killed. She said that there would be exceptions only for humanitarian cases, including the sick, and pointed out that the closure would last until Sunday.
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The entry permit denial followed a shooting attack took place at an open-air complex in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, leaving four Israelis dead and 16 others injured.
Tensions over Jewish access to a volatile and contested Jerusalem holy site, revered by Muslims as Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) and Jews as Temple Mount, have fuelled the violence.
The government also said it was sending two additional battalions – amounting to hundreds more troops – into the West Bank.
About two weeks ago, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman ordered that the bodies of Palestinians killed during attacks would no longer be given back to their families for burial.
The policy is backed by Israeli hawks as a deterrent measure.
The decision to suspend the entry permits, majority for Palestinians to visit their family in Israel, was taken overnight during a meeting of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Israel Defence Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Lt Gen Gadi Eisenkot soon after the attack.
COGAT, an Israeli defense body, said Thursday that 83,000 permits have been frozen for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza to visit family in Israel, attend Ramadan prayers in Jerusalem or travel overseas via Israel’s Tel Aviv airport.
After urgent consultations with senior security officials, travel restrictions and cancellation of work permits for Palestinians were announced, as well as reinforcement of army and police in crowded public areas, including the Kosel. The Geneva Conventions say punishing people for crimes they have not personally committed can amount to collective punishment, Shamdasani said.
Thousands of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, however, were allowed to attend weekly Muslim prayers at Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.
Tel Aviv has stepped up its demolitions of Palestinian homes over the past months.
The two alleged attackers are Haled and Muhammad al-Mahmar, cousins from the West Bank village of Yatta, near Hebron.
Thousands of police and border police officers will patrol Jerusalem’s Old City.
“We might be the only country in the world where another nation is under occupation without civil rights”, Mayor Ron Huldai told Israeli Army Radio, referring to the Wednesday attack by two Palestinian gunmen.
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Israeli security forces arriving at the scene of a suspect terrorist opened fire at the Sarona Market in Tel Aviv, June 8, 2016.
