Azzun, Eyal, Wed 16.1.08, Afternoon
Eliyahu Passage
14:30 – About 30 vehicles are waiting in line to enter Israel. Only we are on the way out.
Eyal checkpoint
14:35 – Eighteen vehicles are at the entrance to Qalqiliya. The shift has just been replaced, which may account for the long line. The new soldiers are reservists and they expedite the line. Cars with Israeli licence plates, probably with permits, are among the entering vehicles. Some 10 cars are exiting Qalqiliya.
Azzun
There is no checkpoint.
On the main road, opposite Qedumin, there is a long line of Palestinian vehicles waiting for a permission to pass. They are detained because of the Police's attempts to dismantle a Jewish outpost… Up there, in the new outpost, many people are standing on top of a pink building. Down below, there is a television team and a lot of policemen. None of them has time to cast a quick glance at the growing line of Palestinian cars on the road. (The struggle against the settlers is at the expense of the Palestinians.)
'Azzun
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Azoun (updated February 2019)
A Palestinian town situated in Area B (under civil Palestinian control and Israeli security control),
on road 5 between Nablus and Qalqiliya, east of Nabi Elias village. The inhabitants are allowed to construct and improve infrastructures. The Separation Fence has confiscated lands belonging to the town's people. In 2018 olive tree groves owned by one of its inhabitants were confiscated for the sake of paving a road to bypass Nabi Elias. Azoun population numbers 13,000, its economic state dire. Its infrastructures are poor, neglect and poverty rampant. In the meantime, the town council has completed paving an internal road for the inhabitants' welfare.
Because of its proximity to the Jewish settler-colony of Karnei Shomron and its outposts, the town suffers the intense presence of the Israeli army, especially at nighttime: soldiers enter homes, arrest suspects, trash the house and sometimes ruin it, as they do in numerous places in the West Bank. At times a checkpoint closes the entrance to the town, so no one can come in or get out.
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Eyal Checkpoint / Crossing
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Eyal Checkpoint is intended for pedestrians and Palestinians only. This is the main barrier for workers to cross from the center of the West Bank. Workers with a work permit to enter Israel can pass through it for trade, medicine, and visiting prisoners. The checkpoint was built on the Green Line north of Qalqilya in the separation barrier that surrounds the city. The checkpoint began operating in 2004 by the military. Opening hours on weekdays from 04:00 to 19:00. We started holding shifts there in 2007. We arrived at the checkpoint before it opened at 4 in the morning. We reported on the difficult conditions and the long and cramped queues of workers who must continue their journey by commuting to work throughout Israel. At the end of June 2009, the checkpoint was operated by a civil security company, The transit time has been gradually shortened, today it is faster, but the Palestinians still have to arrive very early to make it to the transportation. Usually, about 15,000 people pass through.
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