Tensions running highin West BankasIsraelimposes closure

Residents say thatthe entrances to towns and citieshave been shut with iron gates, cement blocks

Tensions are running high in the occupied West Bank where some 2.8 million Palestinians live~ as the Israeli army imposes a complete closure, a media report said. Residents say that the entrances to towns and cities have been shut with iron gates, cement blocks and mounds of earth, BBC reported.

New military checkpoints have been set up in some places. Through the day there have been long queues at some petrol stations as supplies of fuel have run out, the report said.

"This is something we've seen before through long decades of occupation," said a tour guide in Beit Sahour, who is now without work.

"This is a policy that Israel's been using for decades simply to punish the entire population for the acts of certain groups of people," complained another resident.