In what the Palestinians have called collective punishment, the Israeli army has continued to impose closures around Huwwara in the northern occupied West Bank on Monday.
Routes into and out of Huwwara and Nablus were closed, and stores in the flashpoint town had to close temporarily.
The closures were implemented late on Saturday following a Palestinian drive-by gunshot that left two Israeli troops injured.
“When the troops arrived to close our stores, they didn’t let us save the merchandise or even cover them because they would smash the glass and shoot it,” one shop owner said.
The hardest-hit group, according to business owners, is them.
“When the troops arrived to close our shops, they didn’t let us save the merchandise or even cover them because they would have stolen them otherwise,The gunfire on Saturday was the third to target Jews in Huwwara, which is on the main settlers-only north-south section of Highway 60 in the West Bank.
The army imposes harsh restrictions on the town following each event.
Owner of a fast food restaurant named Ghaleb Odeh claimed that the Israeli army had closed his establishments for a total of 12 days in March alone.
I prepared 200 to 300 kilograms of meat and poultry, along with hundreds of boxes of various salads, to sell the day before yesterday, but when the Israeli military decided to close the stores, I had to trash everything, which resulted in significant financial losses, Odeh told MEE.
He continued by saying that even when the restaurant is open, the ongoing settler attacks in the community cause significant losses for the local businesses because driving is all but impossible.
In recent months, settler violence has repeatedly taken place in Huwwara.
The town, which has 7,000 Palestinian residents and is surrounded by Israeli settlements, is strategically situated in the middle of communities south of Nablus.
It was the scene of an unparalleled Israeli settler rampage last month after hundreds of Israeli settlers attacked the town while being supported by military.
In the attacks, one Palestinian was murdered and almost 400 more were injured.
In contravention of international law, more than 250 settlements and outposts in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are home to close to 700,000 settlers.
