'Like living in a prison' The village isolated from the rest of the West Bank

In January this year, four-year-old Ruqayya Jahalin, her mother and her five siblings were waiting in a taxi at the checkpoint that is the only way in and out of their home, the occupied West Bank village of Beit Iksa.

- Bethan McKernan

Inspections by the Israeli military or border police mean it often takes a long time for Palestinians to enter the besieged village, but everything seemed normal until, out of nowhere, the border police started shooting indiscriminately, hitting Ruqayya in the back.

According to a report by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Aisha, Ruqayya's mother, screamed for help, but could not leave the van for fear she would also be shot. The driver called for an ambulance, but the security personnel wouldn't let the vehicle, nor the girl's father, pass the checkpoint; after 15 minutes, Ruqayya died in her desperate mother's arms.

The border police say they aimed at a car behind the taxi, which had sped into the checkpoint without stopping. The husband and wife in that vehicle, in their 30s, were also killed. Israeli authorities maintain the incident was a terrorist attack, although the couple's family disputes this.

"There are so many problems at that checkpoint... It is the only way into the village and it's the source of all our problems," said Beit Iksa's mayor, Murad Zayed. "Living in Beit Iksa is like living in a prison."

The village's location on the outskirts of Jerusalem makes it uniquely isolated, even by the already punishing standards of restrictions on Palestinian freedom of movement in the West Bank.

Only the 1,800 registered residents, as well as teachers and medics with special permits, are allowed to enter, with strict rules for everything else - food, water tanks, sheep, construction materials.

"My grandchildren are registered in their mother's village, so they can't come visit me here," said Zein Habak, 78. "Many families have similar problems."