Middle East Monitor / March 20, 2023
Israeli occupation forces closed down Palestinian stores in the occupied West Bank village of Huwara near Nablus yesterday after a 30-year-old Israeli man was wounded when the vehicle he was travelling in came under fire in the village, WAFA has reported. Israeli soldiers were also deployed in the area and several military outposts were set up.
According to Fatah official Kamal Odeh, there are traffic jams around the Huwara military checkpoint as a result of the increasing Israeli military measures within the village. Palestinian education officials decided to close all schools today and arrange online classes instead, to avoid Palestinian students being intimidated and harassed by the increased Israeli military presence.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority and Israeli officials met at a security summit yesterday in the Egyptian resort of Sharm al-Sheikh. Egypt, Jordan and the US also took part.
The Palestinian People’s Congress has condemned the PA’s participation in the security meeting which, it warned, provided cover for the extreme far-right Israeli occupation government to continue its crimes against the Palestinians.
The Palestinian leadership, it insisted, should have understood the regional and international changes, responded to the Palestinian collective will and initiated serious steps to boycott and isolate the Israeli occupation government and demand the imposition of sanctions upon it.
Violence has escalated across the occupied Palestinian territories in recent weeks, amid repeated Israeli military raids into Palestinian towns. Dozens of Jewish settlers attacked Huwara last month and carried out arson attacks on several Palestinian homes and vehicles, burning them to the ground. Palestinian aid worker Sameh Aktash was killed by the settlers, and many others were wounded.
