JERUSALEM, Palestine/ISTANBUL

Israel is encircling occupied East Jerusalem with military checkpoints and iron gates, with 88 barriers erected inside the city and its surroundings, Palestinian authorities warned Wednesday.

In a statement, the Jerusalem governor’s office said the Israeli barriers are part of “a systematic policy aimed at isolating the city from its Palestinian surroundings and subjecting its residents to a repressive system of discrimination and segregation.”

It said the latest checkpoints were erected in the towns of Mikhmas and al-Ram, northeast of Jerusalem, and al-Eizariya, east of the city.

The statement accused Israel of “intensifying its crimes to Judaize occupied Jerusalem and erase its Arab and Islamic identity.”

According to figures released by the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, the Israeli army has set up 904 permanent checkpoints across the West Bank.

“Of these checkpoints, nearly 88 were erected in Jerusalem and its villages,” the statement said, calling the Israeli checkpoints “a flagrant violation of the human right to freedom of movement.”

The statement called on the UN and the Human Rights Council to “urgently compel Israel to respect its obligations under international humanitarian law and relevant UN resolutions.”

Palestinians regard East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, in accordance with UN resolutions that reject Israel’s occupation of the city in 1967 and its annexation in 1980.