Almost a year after the security establishment decided to remove the police blockade on the Kumi Ori neighborhood in Yitzhar in Samaria, Border Police officers have returned and have begun intermittently blocking the entrance to the neighborhood and patrolling around the residents' homes.
On Wednesday, officers prevented Yitzhar residents from accessing the neighborhood, presenting them with a closed military zone order which is valid for the next three months.
According to the new order, the entrance and presence of Israelis in Kumi Ori are prohibited, and every police officer has the jurisdiction to detain anyone who remains in the area.
The neighborhood's residents fear that the security establishment intends to reinstate the blockade which was in place for the past two years, and which was lifted after a lengthy battle that gathered public support.
In response to the recent events, tens of Yitzhar residents protested near the roadblock at the entrance to the neighborhood, holding up signs with mottos such as, "Go deal with the enemy," and, "Free Kumi Ori."
"There's no way that while Arab terror runs rampant on the roads of Judea and Samaria and throughout the country, the defense establishment, under the order of the politicians, chooses to fight the Jewish settlements. Unfortunately, it would seem that these are the last palpitations as the Gantz-Lapid government dies," the residents of the neighborhood stated Thursday.
"We expect the incoming right-wing government to immediately lift the restrictions that were placed on Kumi Ori, and to stop Gantz's policy of persecuting settlers," the residents added.