The situation in the West Bank is reaching a qualitative turning point, reports an academic living there. The closure of the border to Jordan had not happened before, even during the two prior intifadas. Two students of the source were stuck in Jordan, unable to come home.
The Israelis are doing something new at the checkpoints, the source reported. They are taking multiple pictures of cars and the people traveling within them. The source surmises that this is perhaps to train a new AI monitoring system.
The Israeli military came into the source’s village and rounded up two or three leaders of the village, men in their 60s. They were kept in a room for a whole day, blindfolded, and provided only a crust of bread to eat at one point. They were addressed for no more than five minutes by the new captain, who told them that if youths throw stones, they will be shot; if anyone even makes any kind of sound as the soldiers pass, they will be shot.
