Israel imposes new restrictions over Palestinians

RAMALLAH - 9 November 2017: The Israeli authorities imposed new restrictions over the movement of the residents of Gaza strip, Haaretz newspaper reported Thursday.

In a detailed report, Israeli Liaison Office officials told the Palestinian civil affairs committee in Gaza that aside from urgent cases, the processing time for exit-permit applications would grow from 24 working days to between 50 and 70. Working days don’t include Fridays, Saturdays or Jewish holidays.

This was another step in a trend toward greater restrictions on Gazans’ freedom of movement that first became evident in late 2015, the reported added.

Over the past year, some 16,000 applications to leave Gaza have piled up at the Israeli Liaison Office and still await a reply, the report said.

The Palestinian civil affairs committee said 14,000 of the applications it has passed on to Israel since the start of the year have yet to receive a response.

These include 3,052 applications by people over 60, 5,533 by merchants (including 400 over age 60) and 3,372 by people seeking to pass through Israel en route to Jordan (including 383 people over 60 and 315 students).

Several cases, including students, academicians, girls and patients, want to travel to Jordan via Erez crossing in order to travel to different countries, the report added.