From the Liveblog of
Sunday, April 11, 2021
IDF to close West Bank, Gaza crossings to Palestinians for Memorial, Independence days
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleJudah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.
The Israel Defense Forces announce that it will close all crossings into Israel from the West Bank and Gaza Strip for two days beginning Tuesday night for the country’s Memorial and Independence days.
The closure — a standard practice for religious and national holidays — was scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Tuesday and last until 12:01 a.m. Friday, pending a “situational assessment,” the military says.
The IDF says exceptions would be made for “humanitarian, medical and special cases” with approval from the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories.
Memorial Day formally begins at 8 p.m. on Tuesday night with a siren sounded across the nation. Commemorations continue throughout the next day — another siren is sounded at 11 a.m. — until Israelis make the dramatic shift from mourning to jubilation on Wednesday night as the country launches its Independence Day celebrations.
The closure will affect the tens of thousands of Palestinians who legally work in Israel every day, most of them in construction and maintenance.
Israeli citizens will still be permitted to move between the West Bank and Israel.
The Times of Israel Community.