Ar-Ras, Habla, Irtah (Sha’ar Efrayim), Wed 18.8.10, Morning
Translation: Suzanne O.
Chabala
6:40 a.m.
The gate is closed. On the other side there are a few tens of Palestinians waiting for the opening. Tom contacts the DCO. Answer: The people who should have been there had to go to another project which has caused the hold up.
6:50 a.m.
A military vehicle arrives and two soldiers alight. We ask the reason for the hold up. Soldier: "If Arabs decide to jump over the fence in a different place… there are hold ups. There's nothing we can do."
We wait for the military police. Tom contacts the DCO again.
7:00 a.m.
A jeep drives by without stopping. We approach the soldiers again and ask them to find out what is happening. Soldier: "If they make problems, this is what happens."
7:05 a.m.
The gates finally open but still no one crosses.
7:17 a.m.
The first people go in for inspection. The first five leave and, to our surprise, smile and greet us with "Good Morning", without getting angry.
7:20 a.m.
Another five people cross through the gate. There are no complaints this morning.
7:25 a.m.
We leave while there are still tens of people queuing, relatively quietly, to cross.
Sha'ar Ephraim
7:30 a.m.
The traffic flows.
The turning onto Road 574 north: the slip road is not paved.
Jios – agricultural gate
7:45 a.m.
We meet a man and a woman at the entrance, they live in Jios. They are at the gate observing like us. According to them the gate opened at 7:30 a.m., and closes at 8:15 a.m. This morning a number of farmers crossed. A young man crosses on foot and a second on a donkey.
7:55 a.m.
We leave them and continue on northwards.
Sha'ar a-Ras
8:15 a.m.
3 soldiers come over to us wanting to know who we are. We request permission to drive onto the Security road and after a quick telephone conversation it is granted and we drive to Te'enim Crossing. At the roadblock there are soldiers and police but all is quiet.
A-Ras (The Children Checkpoint)
See all reports for this place-
A-Ras (The Children Checkpoint)
On Tulkarm-Qalqiliya road (574), east of Hirbet Jubara. tia checkpoint is dedicated to residents traveling to and from Tulkarm, so they should not cross apartheid road 557 (only permissible for settlers).
-
Habla
See all reports for this place-
Habla CP (1393)
The Habla checkpoint (1393) was established on the lands of the residents of Qalqilya, on the short road that
connected it for centuries to the nearby town of Habla. The separation barrier intersects this road twice and cut off the residents of Qalqilya from their lands in the seam zone.(between the fence and the green line).
There is a passage under Road 55 that connects Qalqilya to the sabotage This agricultural barrier is used by the farmers and nursery owners established along Road 55 from the Green Line and on both sides of the kurkar road leading to the checkpoint.
This agricultural checkpoint serves the residents of Arab a-Ramadin al-Janoubi (detached from the West Bank), who pass through it to the West Bank and back to their homes. The opening hours (3 times a day) of this agricultural checkpoint are longer than usual, about an hour (recently shortened to 45 minutes), and are coordinated with the transportation hours of a-Ramadin children studying in the occupied in the West Bank.
Nina SebaAug-18-2025Habla: The gate is in the process of closing
-
Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim)
See all reports for this place-
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.
-