JERSELEM: Ahead of three Jewish holidays marking nearly a month of religious observances, Israel will lock down the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the military announced on Tuesday.
With the upcoming Jewish holidays of Yom Kippur and Sukkot in October, as well as the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, due later this month, Palestinians will not be allowed to leave the West Bank or the Gaza Strip to enter Israel.
The army announced, "passage will be allowed only in humanitarian, medical and exceptional cases during the shutdown," adding that it regularly enforces these restrictions during holidays.
After a series of deadly attacks on Israel since March, tensions are at an all-time high, which is why there are closures. Since then, the Israeli military has increased its raids in the West Bank, particularly in the Nablus and Jenin areas, where there are active Palestinian armed groups.
Operations, which, according to the military, are meant to detain people suspected of "terrorism", are often accompanied by clashes with armed individuals or locals. There have been several Palestinian deaths, including from members of armed groups.
Clashes broke out in the city of Nablus on Tuesday, in a rare operation by Palestinian Authority security forces to arrest members of Hamas, the Islamic movement that rules the Gaza Strip, in which a Palestinian was killed.
Hamas and the secular victory of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have been at odds since the Islamist movement took over Gaza in 2007 after a dangerously close civil war. Reconciliation efforts have since fallen short.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid discussed "the need to calm the situation on the ground and stop terrorism ahead of the upcoming Jewish holidays" in a meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah II on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday. In Lapid's office.
Lapid reportedly said during their meeting, Israel "will not stand idly by and fight terrorism directed against it in all its forms, and will not allow the safety of its citizens to be harmed."
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