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Israel gears up for crackdown in West Bank as violence escalates

Xinhua, November 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

Israel announced on Monday a crackdown on the southern West Bank city of Hebron in an attempt to curb the latest wave of tensions that has flared up since October and taken Hebron as its epicenter.

Israeli forces intensified their presence in and around Hebron on Monday. A number of military checkpoints were erected, roads were sealed off, as described by Palestinian sources.

The Arabic website of the Israeli public radio quoted Israeli security officials as saying that they gear up to exercise more "pressure" on the city by imposing more restrictions on movement, arrests and inspection campaigns.

Israeli authorities also decided to cancel work permits for 1,200 Hebron workers to work inside Israel.

Such measures are expected to bring big losses to the economy, particularly that Hebron contributes with 40 percent of the Palestinian gross domestic product (GDP), according to the Hebron Chamber of Trade and Industry.

Economic difficulties could fuel the cycle of violence that has been going on for the past two months.

Of 95 Palestinians killed since the beginning of October by Israel, 35 are from Hebron, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

Israel says that the majority of Palestinian attacks against Israelis took place in Hebron or neighboring areas, also a larger number of Palestinian attacks in Israel were carried out by Hebron residents.

Nickolay Mladenov, United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, visited Hebron to discuss efforts to calm the current tension.

Hebron Mayor Kamel Hmaid told Xinhua that the situation in the city is "highly explosive" in light of the Israeli restrictions against Palestinians.

He added that Palestinian youths would react to these Israeli measures, warning that Israel would turn the situation out of control.

Hmaid said that the crisis is centered in Hebron's old city where 500 Israeli settlers, residing at the heart of the old city, are preventing more than 40,000 Palestinians from having a normal life.

Israel erected 27 settlements to house 22,000 Israeli settlers in Hebron where 620,000 Palestinians live.

Palestinian expert in Israeli settlement affairs Abdul Hadi Hantash told Xinhua that settlement expansion in Hebron is accelerating faster than any other Palestinian city, particularly in the old city.

He added that settler attacks, mainly carried out under the army's protection, are a factor in the growing tension and anger of Palestinians.

Earlier this month, the Palestinian government exceptionally held its meeting in Hebron, to show solidarity with the city's residents and demand the end of restrictions imposed against them.

The government called for allowing the Palestinian security forces to re-deploy in the old city to protect "Palestinians from the settler crimes," as well as halting all new Israeli measures such as putting age-restrictions on Palestinians' access to the Ibrahimi mosque in the city, and not allowing the international presence observers to do their job.

The government had also called upon the UN's Security Council and General Assembly to oblige Israel to remove settlement outposts in the old city of Hebron, and re-opening the main road. Endit