Israeli soldiers confiscated nine Dunams of Palestinian land from Shu’fat village, north of Jerusalem, in order to expand a military checkpoint located on the western entrance to Shu’fat refugee camp. The forces also intend to annex more lands around this checkpoint in order to fortify it and create what Israel describes as a “security zone”.
Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (www.stopthewall.org) reported that when Israel completes the construction, the harassment which already exists against the Palestinians will be increased and the control over the Palestinian daily life will be lengthened.
Last week, soldiers annexed 128 Dunams of agricultural land from Hizma village, northeast of Jerusalem. The annexation was carried out in order to expand an Israeli military checkpoint west of the town in order to fully isolate it from Jerusalem.
These checkpoints are part of the accelerating construction of the Annexation Wall that will completely isolate Jerusalem and its eastern surrounding Palestinian village from the rest of the Palestinian areas.
Israel is planning to create around 34 fortified checkpoints in all as part of the Annexation Wall. Four of these checkpoints have already been created in Qalandia, north of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, south of Jerusalem, Bardala which is a “commercial terminal in the Jordan valley, and the Qalqilia “labor terminal”, south of Qalqilia, in the northern part of the West Bank.
Two Palestinians have already died this year at checkpoints around Jerusalem. Resident Omar Rashid Abu Kamel, 42, a father of six children, from Shu’fat refugee camp, died when Israeli troops prevented an ambulance from reaching him after he suffered a heart attack.
Soldiers at the checkpoint barred a car from transferring Abu Kamel to hospital, and he died while waiting an ambulance to arrive to the checkpoint.
Also, resident Shihade Ahmad Mahsen, 51, who suffered from asthma, died at sheikh Sa’ad checkpoint, east of Jerusalem, after the soldiers detained and hit him as he was trying to reach Al Maqassed hospital in east Jerusalem.
