Israeli forces close entrance of Nabi Saleh

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces closed the entrance gate of the Palestinian village of Nabi Saleh, in the central occupied West Bank district of Ramallah, on Thursday evening, preventing the entry and exit of the residents.

According to local sources, a large number of Israeli forces was deployed in the village and completely closed the entrance of the village forcefully preventing residents from entering or exiting the village.

Locals added that the closed gate forced them to take longer, alternative routes to enter or exit their village.

With less than a thousand residents, Nabi Saleh is one of the smaller villages in the occupied West Bank, however the community is a flashpoint site in village protests.

Since 2009, the village has held weekly Friday demonstrations, along with a dozen other villages in the occupied West Bank in protest against Israeli occupation policies.

Nabi Saleh's weekly protests focus on the the confiscation of a large portion of village land for the establishment and expansion of the Halamish illegal Israeli settlement and the seizure of the village's natural spring, which has historically been its only water source.

Clashes, night raids, closures and detentions in Nabi Saleh are frequent.

The residential area of Nabi Saleh only accounts for 4.4 percent of the village's total land, according to the Applied Research Institute Jerusalem.

The vast majority of village land lies in Area C, under complete Israeli control.