It said in a report published on Tuesday that those barriers were obstructing the Palestinians' freedom of movement and negatively affecting their economy.

The report, which covers the period from 30/4/2008 to 11/9/2008, monitored the presence of 630 Israeli military barriers in the West Bank and Jerusalem including 20 which were erected during that period and excluding 69 roadblocks in H2 area in Al-Khalil district and the eight barriers between the West Bank and the 1948 occupied lands.

It pointed out that UN teams were forced on many occasions to get around main roads to circumvent those barriers, which caused the loss of hundreds of working hours and extra funds.

The report noted that 57% of the total length of the Israeli separation wall was constructed, and added that 79% of that wall would pass through West Bank lands.

It said that the Palestinians were being isolated from their lands, and pointed to the presence of 56 gates along that wall controlling the movement of Palestinian citizens to and from West Bank lands on both sides of the wall.

In another unrelated incident, IOF troops on Tuesday fired a teargas bomb at an EU official in Na'lin village west of Ramallah while inspecting lands threatened with confiscation at the hands of the Israeli occupation authority to build the separation wall.