Palestinian condemnation of the occupation’s siege of Jericho and the Valley of Jordan

The Israeli occupation continued to impose a strict siege on the city of Jericho and the northern Jordan Valley in the West Bank, exacerbating the suffering of the Palestinians whose fate is controlled at its checkpoints. It impedes them or returns them from where they came from, in addition to harassing and assaulting them, including the patients, with the aim of hindering them and imposing a new reality that threatens to completely separate Jericho and the Valley of  Jordan  from the rest of the West Bank.

In a statement to a SANA reporter, Governor of Jericho and the Jordan Valley, Jihad Abu Al-Assal, noted that the siege imposed by the occupation on the Valley of  Jordan 31 days ago and on Jericho 16 days ago inflicted very heavy losses on the Palestinians, as Jericho is the economic lifeline in the West Bank. The closure of the entrances and main and secondary roads in addition to the continuous attacks by settlers and the occupation forces have resulted in the martyrdom of 9 Palestinians, the arrest of 137, and the demolition of 12 homes since the beginning of this year.

Abu Al-Assal appealed to the international community and its human rights institutions to lift the unjust occupation siege on Jericho and the Valley of  Jordan, and to stop the forced displacement of Palestinians, especially in the Jordan Valley, whose area constitutes one-third of the area of the West Bank.

Human rights researcher Aref Daraghmeh indicated that the occupation is endeavoring to completely separate theValley of  Jordan  and Jericho from the rest of the West Bank, with the aim of fragmenting the geography and preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state on the line of June 4, 1967. The occupation continued to expand 36 settlements in the Valley of  Jordan  and has established seven new outposts since the beginning of this year.

Daraghmeh pointed out that in conjunction with the ongoing siege on the Valley of  Jordan, 157 attacks by the occupation forces and settlers on the region were documented. The occupation continues to steal the resources of the Valley of  Jordan, primarily water, and seizes large areas of land to hand them over to settlers to establish new settlement outposts on it, which makes it controls 82 percent of the total area of the region.

For his part, Coordinator of the Popular Committees to Resist Settlement, Salah Al-Khawaja, warned of the danger of the occupation starting to implement the policy of separating Jericho and the Valley of  Jordan  from the rest of the West Bank, and the continued displacement of Palestinians, with the aim of liquidating their presence there and establishing settlements on it, and thus preventing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, according to what is stipulated in United Nations resolutions.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry affirmed that the siege imposed by the occupation on Jericho and theValley of  Jordan,  is a form of collective punishment on the Palestinians, especially that Jericho is the gateway to Palestine, from which Palestinians from all cities and towns, including children, women, the elderly and the sick, move. It warned that the siege poses obstacles to the continuation of business and industrial, agricultural, tourism and other projects, which threatens to hit the economy. It noted that this requires the international community to put pressure on the occupation to lift its unjust siege, which constitutes a flagrant violation of international law.

Inas Abdulkareem