Zionist army tightens siege on Palestinian towns despite claims to the contrary

Occupied Jerusalem: 14 March, 2001 (IAP News) - The zionist occupation army has tightened its siege of Palestinian population centers in the West Bank despite recent zionist claims to the contrary, Palestinian sources said today.

The sources pointed out that zionist occupation troops were closing down roads and pathways which were opened briefly on Monday, leaving hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians trapped in their towns and villages.

The Governor of Ramallah, Mustafa Isa, described the siege on his city as "a hermetic and complete strangulation."

"Ramallah is now a large open-air prison, I think this is a fair and objective description of the situation," said Isa, who is also known as Abu Firas.

Palestinian citizens from Nablus, Jenin and Tulkarm spoke similarly about the Israeli siege on their respective regions.

One citizen of Tulkarm said the zionists are converting Palestinian towns and villages to "large concentration camps."

Other citizens contacted by telephone vehemently denied Israeli reports that the siege was being relaxed in some localities.

"They occasionally remove a roadblock here and a roadblock their in the presence of television crews and journalists, but when the media leave the area, the bulldozers dig the trenches anew," said one citizen from the village of Surda north of Ramallah.

According to the PA minister of information Yasser Abed Rabbo, Zionist forces in the West Bank, far from relaxing the siege, have erected over 90 new roadblocks throughout the West Bank in the last 48 hours alone.

He described Israeli claims about alleviating the closure as "public relations efforts aimed at enhancing Israel's ugly image."

Abed Rabbo argued that the ultimate aim of the Zionist regime was to bring the Palestinian people to its knees, adding "this will never happen."

The Palestinian official asked the world community to make real efforts to stop Israel's genocidal designs against three million defenseless Palestinian civilians whose' "crime" is their desire to be free from Zionist torment and occupation.