Occupied Jerusalem: 8 September, 2002 (IAP News) : The Israeli apartheid regime on Sunday placed more than three million Palestinians under collective house arrest, preventing more than a million school boys and girls from reaching their schools.

Palestinian sources said the “hermetic curfew” covered most Palestinian population centers in the West Bank including remote villages and small hamlets.

“They (the Israeli army) have reduced our towns into huge detention camps. Any Palestinian seen in the streets could be shot and dead,” said PA official Nabil Abu Rudeina.

He accused the Israeli apartheid regime of “practicing the harshest forms of persecution and oppression against a helpless and unprotected civilian population.”

The Israeli occupation authorities say the mass imprisonment of Palestinians in their own homes was a necessary security measure.

However, Palestinians said the draconian measure as “aiming first and foremost to punish torment innocent people.”

“It seems they are adopting the same tactics used against them during the Second World War against Palestinian civilians,” said Nafez Khalili, an al-Khalil vegetable vendor.

In al Khalil itself, Palestinian youths defied the curfew by taking to the streets.

They hurled stones and shouted “Gestapo” at Israeli troops patrolling the streets of the second largest town in the West Bank.

The occupation troops fired rubber-coated bullets and live ammunition, wounding 15 protesters.

On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed to keep Israeli occupation troops in Hebron and other Palestinian towns, accusing the Palestinians of “not honoring their promises.”

Sharon, widely considered a war criminal, also said Israel was no longer bound by the Oslo Agreement with the Palestinians.