West Bank town becomes 'big prison' as Israel fences it in

A 5m-high metal fence slices across the eastern edge of Sinjil, a Palestinian town in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Heavy steel gates and roadblocks seal off all but a single route in and out of the town, watched over by Israeli soldiers at guard posts.

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SINJIL, West Bank - A 5m-high metal fence slices across the eastern edge of Sinjil, a Palestinian town in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Heavy steel gates and roadblocks seal off all but a single route in and out of the town, watched over by Israeli soldiers at guard posts.

"Sinjil is now a big prison," said Mr Mousa Shabaneh, 52, a father of seven, watching on in resignation as workers erected the fence through the middle of the nursery on the edge of the town where he planted trees for sale, his sole source of income.

"Of course, we are now forbidden from going to the nursery. All the trees I had were burned and lost," he said. "In the end, they cut off our livelihood."

Walls and checkpoints erected by Israeli forces have long been a part of day-to-day life for the nearly 3 million Palestinian residents of the West Bank. But many say that a dramatic increase in such barriers since the start of the war in Gaza has put towns and villages in a state of permanent siege.

The fence around Sinjil is a particularly stark example of barriers that have sprung up across the territory, becoming an overwhelming feature of daily life. The Israeli military says it was erected to protect the nearby Ramallah-Nablus highway.

"In the light of the recurring terror incidents in this area, it was decided to place a fence in order to prevent stone-throwing at a main route and repeated disturbances of public order, thereby safeguarding the security of civilians in the region," it said in a statement.

Because residents are still permitted to enter and exit through the single remaining entrance, the policy is deemed to allow "free access" to the town, the military said.