Silent Siege: How Israel Used the war with Iran to Lock Down the West Bank
By Fayha Shalash – Ramallah
Israel’s tightened measures in the occupied West Bank have robbed Palestinians of their freedom of movement, writes Fayhaa Shalash.
As soon as Israel attacked Iran two weeks ago, the army tightened its security grip on the occupied West Bank, obstructing the movement of Palestinians and confining them to their cities and villages, which have been transformed into isolated residential areas.
These measures have robbed Palestinians of their freedom of movement, to the point that university and educational institutions have switched to remote working, and the streets of major cities have been emptied of people.
In addition, Israel closed the iron gates it had previously installed at the entrances to dozens of villages and towns and tightened its security measures at the more than 900 military barriers.
Concrete blocks were present under the pretext of “security reasons,” as the Israeli army suddenly closed several roads and prevented Palestinian movement, completely disrupting their lives. Meanwhile, illegal settlers continued to move freely without any obstacles.
Racist Measures
These racist measures are applied from time to time to Palestinians under the pretext of security needs, violating their right to movement, worship, education, and normal life in the West Bank.
However, the closure issue wasn’t the only one troubling Palestinians.
Coinciding with the war with Iran, Israeli soldiers began occupying hundreds of homes across the West Bank, turning them into military barracks where soldiers live for days.
The goal is to hide soldiers instead of stationing them in known military camps in case they are bombed. It also gives them greater control over several areas without regard for the fate of their residents.
Home ‘Brutally Stormed’
Hassan Qaddoumi, from the town of Jayyus, east of Qalqilya, was one of the Palestinians whose homes were recently occupied. Soldiers stormed his home at 3:00 AM on Sunday, expelling its residents and seizing control of the home.
He told the Palestine Chronicle that the soldiers banged on the door violently before blowing it up.
They didn’t wait for the residents to take any belongings with them, forcing them out. His family and his brother’s family, who lived downstairs, were forced to stay at another brother’s house in another neighborhood.
Not Gaza: Israeli excavator knocks down homes in West Bank’s Palestinian Nur Shams town — Eye on Palestine
Amidst wide-scale mass expulsion and settlement campaign pic.twitter.com/muZhIS1EKs
— RT (@RT_com) June 22, 2025
“They brutally stormed the house and expelled us. They said they would stay there for days.
As we left, carrying our children, the soldiers arrested my brother and me and assaulted us. They herded our wives and children into a room inside the house,” he explained.
Hours later, the Israeli army forced the women and children out, while the detainees were transferred to a military vehicle and held in detention until Wednesday evening.
Flag Raised
The soldiers left the house on Wednesday, and the two families returned to their homes.
They found them in a deplorable state, with furniture smashed, windows and doors left open for days, and littered with garbage left by the soldiers.
“The soldiers slept on the balcony and roamed around the house freely, vandalizing its contents as they pleased. They also occupied several neighboring houses in the same manner,” he said.
Raising the Israeli flag over occupied homes is a provocation to Palestinians in the heart of their villages and towns. News of a new home being occupied is heard daily, worrying Palestinians about its fate and the real motive behind it.
Al-Aqsa Mosque Shut
Among the new measures introduced under the pretext of security concerns is the closure of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and preventing Palestinians from accessing it. Illegal settlers, however, were not prevented from accessing the Western Wall and praying there.
The mosque remained closed from Friday to Wednesday, but even after it reopened, entry was restricted to certain ages and at certain times.
Al-Aqsa Mosque expert Ziad Buhais told the Palestine Chronicle that Israel partially reopened some of the mosque’s gates, limiting the number of worshippers to no more than 450.
This occurred six days after it was completely closed, with the simultaneous announcement that it would be open on Thursday to groups of settlers.
‘Exclusive Control’
He explained that approximately an hour and a half after the first Israeli strike on Iran, Israeli police stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque, forcibly forcing worshippers to leave after the dawn prayer, and announced the closure of its gates for Friday prayers.
“Controlling the decision to open the mosque is a declaration of ‘sovereignty’ for the occupation,” Buhais stated.
“It is a consecration of the reality it seeks to impose: it is the one who administers the mosque and has exclusive control over all its affairs. It is the one who decides who prays there, how they pray, and when they pray, as if no one on this land or in its vicinity lives except under its control,” he added.
Buhais feared that these “not innocent” measures may be a prelude to some kind of announcement at Al-Aqsa, or an attempt to accustom Palestinians to the idea that it will be closed at certain times.
This may begin during Jewish holidays and then escalate to longer periods of closure, just as is the case with the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron (al-Khalil).
“In the Israeli mind, absolute control over the closure of Al-Aqsa means the completion of a phase: the completion of the phase of ‘prevention’ and ‘isolation’ of worshippers, and thus opens the door to a new phase of establishment,” he stressed.
“Silence on this matter will mean that from now on, Israel’s attention will turn to how to impose a permanent Judaization presence at the mosque,” Buhais stated.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
– Fayha’ Shalash is a Ramallah-based Palestinian journalist. She graduated from Birzeit University in 2008 and she has been working as a reporter and broadcaster ever since. Her articles appeared in several online publications. She contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.