Israeli military puts the village of al-Mughayir under closure for three weeks, disrupting the lives of its 3,200 residents and arresting over fifty people

On 15 June 2023, the Israeli military installed a gate at the eastern entrance of the village of al-Mughayir, near Ramallah. For now, the gate remains open, but it will make it easier for the military to put the village under closure in the future.

The gate was installed several days after the military lifted the closure it had imposed on the village for about three weeks, from 14 May 2023 to 6 June 2023. During this period, the military set up roadblocks at the two main entrances to the village: the west entrance leading to Ramallah and the east entrance leading to the Jordan Valley. The roadblocks were primarily staffed between the hours of 7:00 A.M. and 3:00 P.M., throughout the week, with the one at the east entrance sometimes kept staffed until 8:00 P.M. on the pretext that village youths were throwing rocks at Israeli cars traveling on Alon Route.

When the roadblocks were staffed, the soldiers stationed at them stopped cars, demanded to see passengers’ ID cards, ordered passenger to get out of their cars, conducted searches and, in many cases, told drivers to turn around and go back. In some cases, the soldiers checked pedestrians too, sending some of them back as well. At other times, pedestrians were allowed through without any checks. These extreme restrictions forced local residents to use detours to get in and out of the village.

During the closure, soldiers entered dozens of houses at night, waking up and terrorizing all the residents, including children and babies. Over fifty boys and men ranging in age from 15 to 30 were arrested. Most were released a short while later.

The closure completely disrupted the lives of village residents. Commercial activity suffered, and commodities were in short supply due to the fact that suppliers had difficulty making deliveries. About 500 residents who are employed outside the village had difficulty going about their daily business and getting to work. The 950 school students in the village suffered disruptions to their classes, as 28 teachers who teach in the village but live elsewhere had difficulty accessing schools, along with 23 students who study in the village but live elsewhere.

The agricultural sector was also affected. The village has sixty farming families, including shepherds, who have a total of about 7,000 sheep and goats kept on agricultural lands outside the village, and farmers who cultivate about 8,000 dunams of land (1 dunam = 1,000 sq. meters). All of them had difficulty reaching their lands during the closure.