Jameel Sandouqa, the mukhtar of Shu'fat, said Israeli forces closed the military checkpoint that is located to the northeast of the neighborhood and barred residents and students of Ras Khamis, Ras Shihadeh, Dahiyat Al-Salam, Anata neighborhoods and Shu'fat refugee camp from reaching their destinations.

Sandouqa said that an Israeli court gave the army the green light to close the checkpoint under the pretext that the soldiers were exposed to stone throwing by Palestinian youths in the last three days.

The neighborhoods are within the Jerusalem municipal limits but are on the Palestinian side of the separation wall.

The Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights (JCSER) recently said that 165,000 Jerusalemites under the threat of losing their residency in Jerusalem since they are living east of the wall that separates disputed city from the occupied West Bank.

JCSER stressed that Israel is working on putting the final touches of its Judaization schemes in Jerusalem through confiscating the remaining Palestinian real estate and lands, adding that the next scheme will be aimed at changing the landmarks of the city.

The center pointed out that all measures to Judaize Jerusalem was taken in the aftermath of the Oslo accord which stipulated that the Palestinian Authority would be prohibited from practicing any kind of activity in Jerusalem, but these actions escalated after the Annapolis conference held in November 2007.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in the June 1967 War, annexed it, and has since built settlements there that are home to more than 200,000 Israelis.

Control over the city has been seen as the most sensitive and thorniest issue of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinians hope to make East Jerusalem the capital of their future state but the Israel says the city is its eternal capital.