In response to the security escalation in Yehuda and Shomron, Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth has decided to prohibit Palestinian workers from entering Israeli yishuvim throughout the area.

Under the decision, entry into industrial zones will continue to be permitted, while exceptions for construction sites may be approved based on requests submitted by individual communities.

The decision follows a difficult weekend during which two terrorist attacks took place and amid warnings by security officials of a possible intifada in Yehuda and Shomron. On Friday morning, two Israelis were murdered, and several were wounded in a terror attack on the outskirts of the Palestinian village of Tell.

A day earlier, 51-year-old Itamar Cohen, owner of “Itamar’s Farm” and one of the founders of the agricultural farms in Yehuda and Shomron, was seriously wounded in a stabbing attack at the Derech Avraham Farm near Elon Moreh while helping extinguish a fire that had been started in an arson attack carried out by Palestinians from the village of Beit Furik.

During the firefighting efforts, two terrorists stabbed Cohen in the chest. Both terrorists were shot dead at the scene by an Israeli civilian who was present.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)