Center for the Defence of the Individual - Two weeks after Beit Fajjar was placed under a military encirclement: movement restrictions have been lifted following HaMoked’s appeals
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חזרה לעמוד הקודם
30.03.2016

Two weeks after Beit Fajjar was placed under a military encirclement: movement restrictions have been lifted following HaMoked’s appeals

On March 17, 2016, the military imposed an encirclement on the town of Beit Fajjar in Bethlehem District; this, following a stabbing incident involving two local youth who were shot dead by the military.

On March 20, 2016, HaMoked contacted the military commander of the West Bank to demand the encirclement be lifted immediately. HaMoked noted that for four days now Beit Fajjar was under severe entry and exit travel restrictions, as part of which, a dialysis patient had been prevented from traveling outside his locality to receive medical treatment. HaMoked asserted that an encirclement constituted collective punishment, prohibited under international humanitarian law.

Contrary to the military’s statement, noted HaMoked, these were not partial movement restrictions but a complete encirclement. This policy, embodied in the string of military encirclements recently imposed on Palestinian localities, contradicts a previous undertaking of the state.

In its response from March 24, 2016, the military stated that the movement restrictions had been significantly relaxed since March 21, 2016; and that the age restriction was then being reduced to just men between the ages of 15 and 25, who did not have permits to work in Israeli settlements. It was further stated that “once the concrete need for the movement restrictions passes, they will be lifted”.

Following another letter by HaMoked, the military notified that the restrictions would be lifted on midnight of March 27, 2016, “insofar as there is no change in the security situation assessment”.

From inquiries made in the following two days, HaMoked discovered that the age restriction was lifted and the roadblocks were removed, except for one; this last one was removed only on the morning of March 3, 2016.