Israel has announced that a general closure will be imposed on areas under the domain of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Judea and Samaria known as Area A for the entirety of the Purim holiday. The closures, which will begin on Tuesday night at midnight, will be enforced by the IDF command, who has alerted the PA to inform their populace regarding the closure. The closure will include all of the crossings into the Gaza strip.

The political echelon made the decision as it has in previous years as well regarding all such closures. The closure will be enforced until Sunday at Midnight and will be subject to an assessment at that time with regards to the reopening of the crossings and checkpoints.

According to a statement issued by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, only humanitarian, medical, and other exceptional cases will be permitted to travel from the Palestinian areas into Israel. All such entries will be subject to the approval by the unit for the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).

Since the second Intifada, when terror attacks during holidays occurred frequently, these closures have become somewhat of a routine in order to prevent such attacks, which claimed the lives of dozens of Israelis, from recurring.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)