Tensions running high in West Bank as Israel imposes closure

Jerusalem : Tensions are running high in the occupied West Bank -- where some 2.8 million Palestinians live -- as the Israeli army imposes a complete closure, a media report said. Residents say that the entrances to towns and cities have been shut with iron gates, cement blocks and mounds of earth, BBC reported.

New military checkpoints have been set up in some places. Through the day there have been long queues at some petrol stations as supplies of fuel have run out, the report said. "This is something we’ve seen before through long decades of occupation," said a tour guide in Beit Sahour, who is now without work.

"This is a policy that Israel’s been using for decades simply to punish the entire population for the acts of certain groups of people,” complained another resident. On Sunday, shops and businesses in the West Bank were shuttered as a general strike was called in response to Israel’s military action in the Gaza Strip, which is governed by Hamas.

The evening saw angry protests. Four Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli soldiers at Qalandiya checkpoint in Ramallah on Thursday night, BBC reported. In Hebron, a man was killed apparently trying to ram Israeli forces with a bulldozer.