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Photo:
Marda closure. Published by Maan News
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SALFIT (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces closed entrances of the village of Marda in the northern occupied West Bank district of Salfit on Wednesday evening, preventing Palestinian vehicles and citizens from leaving or entering the area.

Israeli forces closed the iron gates installed at the entrances of Marda by Israeli authorities in 2000 when the Second Intifada broke out across the occupied Palestinian territory. Locals said that Israeli forces closed the gates after Israeli forces claimed that residents of the area threw stones at Israeli settler cars passing Abir al-Samra street near the village.

An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an she would look into reports on the closures.

Palestinian communities are routinely subjected to arbitrary road closures by Israeli military forces for purported "security reasons," an act which rights groups have denounced as amounting to collective punishment.

Closures in Salfit were implemented at least two times last month in the villages of al-Zawiya and Qarawat Bani Hassan. Israeli forces also raided Qarawat Bani Hassan on at least one occasion in response to allegations of local Palestinian youths throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at the illegal Israeli settlement of Kiryat Netafim.