JERUSALEM :Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has ordered the army to seal off the West Bank for 48 hours until midnight on Saturday, an army spokesman said.
The action was taken “for security reasons” including a risk of attacks, the spokesman said Friday. The area was sealed off at midnight on Thursday.
Israeli police have also said they would bar Muslim men under the age of 50 from prayers on Friday at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound, one of Islam’s holiest sites, fearing unrest.
The moves come after violent clashes at the site, which is also holy to Jews, during last week’s Muslim prayers, and fresh tensions over Israeli plans to build 1,600 homes for Jewish settlers in mostly Arab east Jerusalem.
The army said some medical and religious workers, teachers, journalists and others would be exempted from the West Bank closure.
Since the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising in September 2000, Israel has usually sealed off the West Bank ahead of major holidays, saying the move is necessary to prevent attacks, but only rarely on other occasions.
“The IDF (armed forces) will continue to operate in order to protect the citizens of Israel while maintaining the quality of life of the Palestinian population in the area,” the military said in a statement.
TEHRAN: Preacher of Eid al-Adha prayers in Tehran Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami condemned on Saturday the International Atomic Energy Agency’s anti-Iran resolution, saying the move was “political and non-technical.”
Ahmad Khatami, speaking at a Tehran University prayer service to mark the holiday of Eid al-Adha, warned world powers that Iran will not be cowed by threats or swayed by “bribery” to give up its right to nuclear technology.
He was responding to a resolution adopted on Friday by the IAEA demanding that Iran halt its nuclear programs.
Ayatollah Khatami said, “The IAEA resolution condemns the agency itself rather than the law-abiding Iran.”
The preacher of Eid al-Adha prayers in Tehran added, “such behaviours towards Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities will prevent other countries from cooperating with the IAEA.”
Iranian foreign ministry also dismissed the resolution as “theatrical and useless”.
JERUSALEM :Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has ordered the army to seal off the West Bank for 48 hours until midnight on Saturday, an army spokesman said.
