[Sunday December 29, 2013] A Palestinian man has died, on Sunday, at a flying checkpoint erected by Israeli forces in the northern West Bank.Adel Muhammad Amarnah, 65, was being rushed to a Jenin hospital when his car was stopped by Israeli forces, at a checkpoint near the village of Yaabad, according to a Ma’an interview with the man’s family.
An Israeli soldier apparently told the driver of the car to ‘go back where he came from’. After being held up for an extended period of time, the driver finally convinced the soldier to let him pass through the checkpoint.
Amarnah died before he could reach the public hospital in Jenin, where the doctors confirmed his death, his family went on to say.
An Israeli army spokesman did not immediately return calls seeking comment on the incident.
In related news, Israeli forces have continued to besiege the northern West Bank town of Yaabad, near Jenin, for the sixth day in a row, closing off entrances with military checkpoints and preventing travel by residents.
According to a reporter from the Ma’an News Agency, Israeli military checkpoints have been erected at the main entrance, in the east, and on all side streets and agricultural roads. Residents have been prevented from leaving town to their places of work or studies. Some have chosen to take mountainous bypass roads, in order to leave the town.
A taxi driver named Ahmad Amarnah told Ma’an that, for the sixth day, Israeli troops stationed at the entrances to the town have prevented all residents from leaving. People who choose to leave through mountainous roads could still be stopped by Israeli soldiers at Dutan checkpoint, he added.
There are about 100 permanent Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank, while surprise ‘flying checkpoints’ often number into the hundreds.
Israeli forces impose severe restrictions on Palestinian movement, in the West Bank, through a complex combination of fixed checkpoints, flying checkpoints, roads forbidden to Palestinians but open to Jewish settlers, and various other obstructions.
The internationally recognized Palestinian territories, of which the West Bank and East Jerusalem form a part, have been occupied by the Israeli military since 1967.
