TEL AVIV, April 15: Israel started work on Monday to build defensive barriers isolating occupied Al Quds from the Palestinians in the West Bank, public television reported.

It broadcast pictures of teams of workers laying down barbed wire while bulldozers dug trenches north of the city.

The Israeli government has given the green light for a project to isolate a greater part of the holy city with a system of defences following a string of Palestinian attacks.

These include Jewish settlement districts in the city’s annexed eastern sector, which Israel seized in the 1967 war.

According to Israeli newspapers, the system will include walls, trenches, fences, mounds and watch towers running 54 kilometres to the north, south and east of of the city.—AFP