Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim)
We arrived a little before 4:00. Promptly at four the gates opened, and three minutes later the first people already got through into Israel. At 4:05 we went down to the separation barrier and saw that there was no line, everyone walked straight in to be checked as soon as he arrived. We performed several rounds of checking, moving from the separation barrier and around to the entrance into Israel, and everyone we watched for got through in about seven minutes. People greeted us and their friends, everyone seemed satisfied with the process.
Both the small gate on the way to the separation barrier and the large gate between the building and the parking lot stayed open all the time we were observing.
A minor point: The first time we sat down near the exit to watch for people coming through, it was dark there. Someone remembered to turn on the light only at 4:30.
We left at 4:50.
Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim)
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The checkpoint is for Palestinians only. It is the main barrier to the passage of workers from the northern West Bank to Israel. Workers with a permit to work in Israel and also for trade (with appropriate permissions), medicine, and visiting prisoners. One can cross the checkpoint only on foot. The checkpoint is located north of Road 557 and south of Tulkarm. Operated by a civil security company, opening hours: between 4:00 and 19:00 on weekdays. As members of Machsom Watch, we began our shifts to this location in 2007. We arrived before it opened at 4 in the morning and report since, on the harsh conditions and the long and crowded queues of workers. The workers who pass by continue their journey by transportation to work throughout Israel. In the first period of its activity, about 3,000 and then 5,000 people passed through this checkpoint every day. Due to the small number of checking points and arbitrary delays for long periods of time in the "rooms", workers feared losing their transportation. Hence workers leave their homes at 2:30 at night to be among the first. Today, 15,000 pass and the transition is faster. Workers are still leaving their homes very early to get past the checkpoint at 7 p.m. In an adjacent compound, there is a terminal for the transfer of goods on a commercial scale, using the back-to-back method.
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