JERUSALEM // Israeli authorities have barred Palestinians from entering Israel from the occupied West Bank or the Gaza Strip ahead of the Jewish Yom Kippur holiday that begins on Tuesday evening.
Thousands of Jews visit the Western Wall in east Jerusalem’s Old City around Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement, which ends on Wednesday evening.
The closure in place on Tuesday and Wednesday applies only to Palestinians and not the roughly 400,000 Israeli settlers who live in the West Bank.
Palestinians are frequently barred from entering Israel during major Jewish holidays.
Palestinians were also barred from entering Israel during last week’s Rosh Hashanah holiday and will be barred again for next week’s Sukkot festival.
Last year’s holiday period led to clashes and marked the start of a wave of violence in which 232 Palestinians and 36 Israelis have been killed.
Israeli security forces are on especially high alert after a Palestinian gunman killed two people in Jerusalem on Sunday before being shot dead himself by police.
More than 3,000 police are being deployed in the city for Yom Kippur.
The Gaza Strip is always under an Israeli blockade, though some crossings are usually allowed for work or medical purposes.
* Agence France-Presse