Palestinians Banned From West Bank Settlements Amid Violence

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By JTA January 20, 2016

Palestinian workers were banned from working in Jewish West Bank settlements in the wake of attacks that killed one Jewish mother and left a pregnant woman wounded.

The military order went into effect on Tuesday, and the decision will be reviewed on a daily basis, an Israeli military source told Israeli and Palestinian news services.

Some 11,000 Palestinian laborers who work in settlements in the West Bank will be impacted by the decision, the Palestinian Maan news agency reported.

The decision was announced on Monday following the stabbing of a 30-year-old pregnant woman in Tekoa, in the Gush Etzion bloc of settlements. The previous evening, a 38-year-old mother of six, Dafna Meir, was stabbed to death in her home in Otniel, near Hebron. Meir struggled to fend off the Palestinian assailant; three of her children witnessed the attack.

The Israel Defense Forces reportedly took the decision out of fear of copycat attacks in other settlements.

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