A recent report issued by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has revealed that the Israeli army- on the contrary of previous promises to ease movement restrictions- has installed 40 more mobile checkpoints in different parts of the West Bank over the period between March 28th and April 3rd.
The increase in number of Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks across the West Bank would definitely add to the suffering of the Palestinian population, who are already used to having to pass through a total of 171 mobile checkpoints. The OCHA’s report explains that during the past week in which the checkpoints have been installed, two Palestinians including a child have been kiiled by Israeli soldiers, and 32 others have been injured.
In the Gaza Strip, the report documents that 333 Palestinian households from northern Gaza, have been displaced in the wake of a humanitarian crisis in the Bedouin village of Um Alnaser, where sewage water floods devastated the village. Those evacuated have been sheltered in temporary UNRWA camps, in a time 161 houses have been already damaged by the sewage floods, the report adds. The report voices concern over the possible spread of fatal diseases in northern Gaza due to the large-scale pollution caused by the sewage floods.
The Israeli authorities have issued permits for 8,000 Palestinian Christians from the West Bank to enter Jerusalem over the Easter period, despite a complete closure of the occupied Palestinian territories last Monday, the OCHA maintains. In East Jerusalem, the Israeli authorities forced out 70 Palestinian families from their homes in the Dahiyat As-Salam neighborhood, alleging that their 10-storey residential compound belongs to a Jewish woman who inherited the building from her grandfather, the OCHA documents. However, no documents have been presented by the Israeli authorities, the OCHA confirms.
