Following the recent outbreak of COVID-19 in the Palestinian Authority territories, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is seriously weighing the possibility of temporarily closing all crossings between Israeli and Palestinian territory throughout Judea and Samaria.

The Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement which said among other things, “In light of the dramatic jump in morbidity in the Palestinian Authority (PA), the Prime Minister ordered that closing the crossings be evaluated immediately.”

Should the step be taken it would be the second time this year that such a move happened in order to prevent the spread of the virus. According to statements made by Palestinian officials in the media on Wednesday, the PA is unaware of any Israeli decision to close checkpoints to or from the West Bank.

One official told the Jerusalem Post that the PA was considering banning all Arab-Israelis from entering the West Bank over the course of a short period of time in order to help prevent the spread of the virus in the PA.

According to the official, there have been dozens of weddings and other family celebrations that have been held by Arab-Israelis who hold the event in PA cities in order to circumvent Israeli health restrictions. The events violate the PA health restrictions as well but the enforcement seems to be less effective.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)