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by IMEMC News & Agencies

Israeli forces, on Sunday, began installing a large concrete wall in occupied East Jerusalem to separate the Palestinian neighborhood of Jabal al-Mukabbir from the illegal Israeli settlement of Armon Hanatziv.

Witnesses told Ma'an that Israeli forces helped unload huge concrete blocks in the neighborhood, including the notorious T-shaped blocks used in Israel's illegal separation wall that surrounds and cuts through the occupied West Bank.

Most of the concrete blocks are two meters high, witnesses, and were set up in streets near the illegal Israeli settlement of Armon Hanatziv, also known as East Talpiot.

Residents of Jabal al-Mukabbir said that four days earlier, on Wednesday, Israeli forces closed all routes to the neighborhood with cement blocks and set up a checkpoint at the main entrance.

Nearly all Palestinian neighborhoods across occupied East Jerusalem have seen severe movement restrictions imposed by Israel's security cabinet following a series of attacks on Israelis.

Late on Tuesday, Israel’s security cabinet announced that Israeli police would be entitled to "impose a closure on, or to surround, centers of friction and incitement in Jerusalem, in accordance with security considerations."

The cabinet also gave approval for the revocation of residency status for Palestinians who carry out attacks as well as the police closure of occupied East Jerusalem.

Israeli rights group B'Tselem has called the Israeli government’s response to recent escalation in the area as "the very inverse of what ought to be done" toward ending the violence.

"The events of recent weeks cannot be viewed in a vacuum, isolated from the reality of the ongoing, daily oppression of 4 million people, with no hope of change in sight," the group said in a statement on Tuesday.

At least seven Israelis and 42 Palestinians have been killed in violence that has escalated since the beginning of October.

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