Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.
Illustrative: IDF soldiers vote in elections for Israel's 18th Knesset at a West Bank checkpoint near Bethlehem, February 9, 2009. (Nati Shohat/Flash 90)
The Israel Defense Forces on Monday announced that it was shutting down all crossings into Israel from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for Tuesday’s national elections, as is standard practice during Jewish and national holidays.
The military said the closure would begin at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday and last for 24 hours, pending a situational assessment.
Exceptions will be made for humanitarian cases, namely the passage of medical patients to Israeli hospitals, but will require the approval of the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, the army said.
Election day is a paid vacation day for workers in Israel. Most polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 10 p.m.
An Arab Israeli woman votes at a polling station in Haifa, March 17, 2015. (AFP/AHMAD GHARABLI)
The closure will affect the tens of thousands of Palestinians who legally work in Israel every day, most of them in construction and maintenance.
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Israeli citizens will still be permitted to move between the West Bank and Israel.
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