Lockdown in West Bank, crowds in Gaza - Palestinians divided over coronavirus

Footprints are seen on a beach during sunset amid concerns about the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in the northern Gaza Strip April 8, 2020. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem

GAZA/WEST BANK (Reuters) - Political and physical divisions between Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have induced two very different responses to the coronavirus pandemic, with a strict lockdown in the first and crowds milling about freely in the second.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which has 250 recorded cases of the COVID-19 lung disease, a lockdown on public life was swiftly imposed - Bethlehem was sealed off after the first outbreak in March and a state of emergency declared.