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Israel announces plan to upgrade West Bank crossings

Xinhua, May 19, 2016 Adjust font size:

Israel's Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon announced on Thursday a plan to upgrade West Bank crossing used by Palestinians to enter and leave Israeli territory.

The two-year plan aims at making the checkpoints more efficient by upgrading the technological infrastructure, in order to save time for Palestinians, who spend hours at these checkpoints on a daily basis, and increase the number of people and goods that go through them.

"The plan is designed to increase the number of Palestinians who work in Israel who can go through the checkpoint, improve their conditions so they will stand up to tests of quality and service," Ya'alon said in a statement sent by his office.

Ya'alon said the plan, at the estimated cost of 300 million shekels (about 78 million U.S. dollars), hopes to cut by "30 to 50 percent" the waiting time at the checkpoints.

The plan is the product of cooperation between the Defense Ministry, the Finance Ministry and the Coordinator of the Government's Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which is responsible for implementing the Israeli government's policy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israel occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip territories in the 1967 Mideast War.

According to figures obtained by B'Tselem, a non-governmental organization advocating for human rights in the West Bank, as of April 2015 there were 96 fixed checkpoints in the West Bank, including 57 internal checkpoints. Endit