"As of Friday morning, all of the West Bank governorates, towns and villages will be closed for a period of five days," Palestinian government spokesman Ibrahim Melhem announced on Wednesday (July 1st). During this press conference, he said that pharmacies, bakeries and supermarkets would remain open.

The number of Covid-19 cases more than doubled in a week in the West Bank to a total of 2,636 on Wednesday, compared to 1,256 a week earlier.

Authorities already last week ordered the temporary closure of the cities of Nablus (north), Hebron and Bethlehem (south) to help stop the spread of the virus. In early June, they renewed the state of health emergency for 30 days shortly after lifting the two-month confinement imposed in the West Bank, put in place after the appearance of the first cases on March 5.

>> See: Annexation in the West Bank: "A priori, the decision should be made in the coming days"

Health Minister Mai al-Kaila said the upsurge in the number of cases was partly due to displacement between the West Bank and Israel, which also saw an increase in the number of cases after having relatively well mastered the pandemic.

Tens of thousands of West Bank Palestinians work in Israel and Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh urged Palestinians living in Israel to refrain from traveling to the West Bank and Palestinians working in Israel not to travel for 14 days .

On the Israeli side, the number of contamination cases jumped by about 15% in the past week to exceed 25,500 on Wednesday, according to official government data.

"Palestinian lives matter"

Thousands of Palestinians also demonstrated on Wednesday in Gaza City against the US plan for the Middle East, which provides for the annexation by Israel of territories in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli government should in principle decide from Wednesday on the implementation of the plan, which also provides for the creation of a demilitarized Palestinian state on a fragmented territory and without East Jerusalem as its capital.

In Gaza, a Palestinian enclave about 50 kilometers from the occupied West Bank, thousands of people chanted slogans against the American project during a rally attended by Yahya Sinouar, one of the leaders of the ruling Hamas movement in this territory.

>> See: West Bank: deciphering the project to annex Israel

The demonstrators held up Palestinian flags and placards that read "No to annexation" and "Palestinian lives matter", in reference to the anti-racism movement "Black lives matter" party of United States.

On Wednesday morning, Hamas launched about 20 test rockets into the Mediterranean Sea as a warning, sources within the Islamist movement, involved in three wars with Israel since 2008, told AFP.

The Hebrew state has imposed a strict blockade on the Gaza Strip for more than 10 years, to, he says, contain the armed movement.

A project that shatters the "two-state" solution

A demonstration against the annexation project also took place in Jericho, the largest Palestinian city in the Jordan Valley, where former Israeli deputies and ministers joined dozens of Palestinians.

"We want to affirm our support for peace," said former Labor Minister of the Interior Ophir Pines-Paz. "Netanyahu and his annexation project must be stopped".

>> Read: Annexation of Territories in the West Bank: The Palestinians' Plan to Roll Back Israel

Another demonstration is planned for the end of the day in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority.

The Palestinians are trying to get support against the Israeli project that they say shatters the "two-state" solution, a viable Palestine alongside Israel. They say they are ready to reopen direct negotiations with the Israelis but not on the basis of the Trump plan.

"We are not going to sit at a negotiating table where the annexation or the Trump plan are proposed because it is not a peace plan, but a project to legitimize the occupation", said Palestinian negotiator Saëb Erakat.

With AFP

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