‘Azzun, ‘Azzun ‘Atma, Eliyahu Crossing, Habla
There is a new checkpoint, manned, between Shufa and Isbat Shufa. Details to follow.
06:00 ‘Azzun ‘Atma
A lot of people have already passed through and are waiting for transport outside. However, the line is still long (about 70 waiting); very different from last week's situation. There are only 2 inspection booths, which does not help. While we were at the checkpoint, we received a number of requests for help from those on the GSS blacklist which we referred to S., that she should check whether there was anything to do about it. The people from the Hansen company return from their night shift (?) 3 coffee kids run around as usual, energetic and active. We timed the crossing: although there were only 2 booths, it wasn't especially slow and it took about 20-25 minutes to cross. By 07:00 the line was shorter.
06:50 Habla
A military vehicle was standing at the entrance to the nurseries on the main road.
No line at all, everyone who arrived went straight through: people, carts, donkeys. A family arrived from the Israeli side, children and adults in a taxi. People from Arav Ramdin, Bedouin who live in the seam area, but whose lives are naturally centered on the West Bank, enter Habla. Still no line and everyone goes through in a few minutes. Another family arrives of women from Ramdin, dressed up as though for an evening party. A flock of sheep arrives and goes through. At about 08:00 the line lengthens, the passage is quick. 08:00 – the gates close.
Conversation with Abed, from the Peace Nursery:
One of Abed's workers got a restriction order from the GSS a month ago; he doesn't know why. Since then, his case has been reviewed at the DCO and every day he is delayed at the checkpoint and he has to call the DCO. Today they took his permit away entirely. After Abed spoke with the DCO, he was told that he had to go to the DCO office and get a new permit on which would be written "Permit in spite of restriction". What else can the IDF invent?? Further conversation revealed that the permit of A., our friend from one of the other nurseries, was also in this strange category.
08:35 Eliyahu
Entrance to Kedum: there are 2 soldiers with weapons at the bus stop; perhaps to guard the settlers waiting for rides. For this they were conscripted!
J'it junction– open.
Shufa and Izbat Shufa
The checkpoint at the entrance to Izbat Shufa from Shufa has been manned again for 10 days. We met with A. from Shufa, who asked us to come there. At the checkpoint, they were only allowing Palestinians through whose address on their IDs was in Shufa. All the others had to travel round about, adding about 30 kilometers to their journey. He said that this checkpoint was poisoning the lives of people coming from Shufa because of the unnecessary lengthening of their trip: e.g., teachers from the Tulkarm area coming to teach in Shufa, extended family from the area coming to visit.
All of this was despite the High Court decision there was not to be any checkpoint between the 2 areas, a checkpoint which had existed for 10 years. In A.'s opinion, the purpose of the checkpoint was to expel Palestinians form the area around the settlers living in Avnnei Hefetz. One should mention that those traveling from Shufa to Tulkarm by detour do not use the road to Avnei Hefetz and in this way they are reducing the use of this road by Palestinians to a minimum. A man from Izbat Shufa wanting to get to Shufa now has to travel to Nablus in order to make the whole detour by way of ‘Anabta to Shufa. Is this a clever way around the High Court decision which had instructed that the road not be closed to the residents of Shufa? We will try to clear this up.
While we were in the area, we saw a lot of cars and trucks arriving at the checkpoint from both directions, but were not allowed to go through and thus forced to return on their tracks. They are still "uninformed".
While we were standing on the side of the road, 3 adult men, 2 women and another man were talking with us – it seems that this situation was leading to serious anxiety among the soldiers about our safety, so they came over twice to ask if we were okay and tried to convince us to leave; also a settler passing by on the road suggested we leave the place, naturally because he was worried about us…so much compassion and care!
09:40 Teenim checkpoint
At the side of the checkpoint there is a gate through which only Israeli Arabs are allowed to pass from the direction of Tulkarm into Israel. The gate is open from 11:00 to 20:00.
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'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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'Azzun 'Atma
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'Azzun 'Atma
A Palestinian village of about 1,800 residents. The settlement of Sha'arei Tikva was established on its land adjacent to it, and the settlement of Oranit was established on its agricultural lands. By 2013, the separation fence had passed through the village and a checkpoint staffed by the army allowed the residents to cross from side to side. After building a massive wall surrounding the village and some of its agricultural lands, the residents went daily for five years to their lands that remained in the Seam Zone through the Oranit agricultural checkpoint (4). Since 2018 it has only opened during the olive harvest and the farmers have to pass daily at the Beit Amin / Abu Salman checkpoint (1447), about 3 kilometers north.From a report from March 24, 2021: "The farmers from Beit Amin and Azon Atma are happy that since February 21 the Oranit checkpoint .is going to be open 3 times a day, The farmers are really developing the place."
Report from July 14, 2024: "Ornit checkpoint is closed . The Beit Amin/Abu Salman agricultural checkpoint is closed (there is no contact with the military to check if it opens rarely), the Ezbat Jaloud checkpoint was opened once a day before the war.
Updated for July 2024
Apr-11-2019Azoun: The main entrance to village blocked now for several weeks
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Eliyahu CP (109) / Crossing
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Eliyahu CP (109) / Crossing This checkpoint, also known as the Fruit Crossing, is one of the main checkpoints between Israel and the West Bank. It is located on Route 55 between Alfei Menashe and the turn to Qalqilya and Zufin, more than 4 km east of the Green Line, in the separation fence, which separates Qalqilya from its lands to the south, thus leaving Alfei Menashe West of the fence - the Seam Zone. This checkpoint, a few kilometers across the Green Line, is intended for "Israeli settlement in the West Bank and the population of the Seam Zone." It is managed by a civil company. Palestinians with a special permit for their lands in the seam area are also allowed to pass through it, on foot, and sometimes by car.
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Habla
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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
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