Azzun, Beit Iba, Jit, Mon 17.12.07, Afternoon
15.15 Beit Iba– When we arrive and park in the parking lot the lane of cars reaches almost to this lot. There is a holiday feeling. People loaded with parcels and presents. The taxis cause a traffic jam. Army cars try to go through to Nablus and are also stuck. The soldiers manage to bring about some sort of order and the jam opens up.
Elderly people and women with children are checked on the side by three soldiers. Few young people go through the turnstiles. They are already on holiday.
A bus at the side of the road is checked by the dog for at least 15 minutes.
People enter Nablus with no problems.
A soldier comes to speak to the soldiers at the checkpoint about a young man who has a scarf with colours which he says is that of the Fatah. He asks if he can give it back to the young man and is sent back to do so.
16.15 There is much traffic on the roads. The meat of sheep hangs in the shops. But Gamal who owns a shop says that people have no money to buy.
At Jit there is no checkpoint.
We see a sign pointing to the settlement of Shvut Ami and see a high mound of dirt on the road leading to the pink house at the head of the hill.
Azzun …no checkpoint and the road to the village is open.
'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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Beit Iba
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A perimeter checkpoint west of the city of Nablus. Operated from 2001 to 2009 as one of the four permanent checkpoints closing on Nablus: Beit Furik and Awarta to the east and Hawara to the south. A pedestrian-only checkpoint, where MachsomWatch volunteers were present daily for several hours in the morning and afternoon to document the thousands of Palestinians waiting for hours in long queues with no shelter in the heat or rain, to leave the district city for anywhere else in the West Bank. From March 2009, as part of the easing of the Palestinian movement in the West Bank, it was abolished, without a trace, and without any adverse change in the security situation.
Jun-4-2014Beit-Iba checkpoint 22.04.04
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Jit Junction
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The checkpoint is located on Route 60 near at the junction with Route 55, near the village of Jit. There was a checkpoint for vehicles passing between the north and south of the West Bank, which was abolished towards 2010. Since then, surprise checkpoints have been set up there from time to time with a police or Border Police vehicle, and vehicles and their passengers are inspected.
Anat PolakJul-17-2025Yitzhar Road, Jit Junction: traffic jam
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