BETHLEHEM: Israeli occupation forces Wednesday erected a checkpoint at the entrance of the western rural countryside of the occupied West Bank governorate of Bethlehem, according to security sources. They said that the occupation soldiers set up a checkpoint at the entrance of the Aqbet Hasna locality, which leads to the cluster of the villages of Battir, Nahalin, Husan and Wadi Fukin, stopping and inspecting vehicles with Palestinian registration plates and checking passengers' ID cards and causing traffic congestion. Since Tuesday night, the occupation forces have tightened the closure of the Bethlehem governorate, closing the western entrance of Beit Jala city, west of Bethlehem, and the southern entrance of al-Khader town, south of Bethlehem. Israel severely restricts Palestinians' freedom of movement through a complex combination of over 100 fixed checkpoints, flying checkpoints, settler-only roads and various other physical obstructions. Closures besides other measures, taken under the guise of secu rity, are intended to entrench Israel's 57-year-old military occupation of the West Bank and its settler colonial project which it enforces with routine and frequently deadly violence against Palestinians. Source: Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA