Since early October, the Israeli Army has blocked or restricted access to at least nine roads in the roughly 25 square mile region, after a wave of violence in the occupied West Bank that has centered on the northern cities of Nablus and Jenin. The closures have placed Nablus, a city of about 160,000 people, under a semi-blockade, damaging its economy and creating hourslong bottlenecks. They have also limited movement and harmed trade in smaller nearby towns like Huwara. The lockdowns are the latest development of the conflagration between Palestinian violence, settler attacks and Israeli Army raids that have all increased in 2022, leading to the deaths of more than 100 Palestinians and five Israelis in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and making this the deadliest year there since 2015. Separately, more than 40 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, and at least 18 Israelis and foreigners in Israel…The blockade has forced Nablus residents to queue for several hours to leave the city during the day, restricted almost every aspect of the area’s economy and discouraged other Palestinians from entering the city…The closure has drastically reduced revenues at most kinds of shops, emptied hotels, forced lawyers to postpone court cases, suspended university classes and canceled events…But if Israelis hoped that would turn him and other traders against the Lions’ Den, “in reality, it’s the opposite,” Mr. Hijawy said.”
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