Azzun, Beit Iba, Jit, Mon 19.11.07, Afternoon
Beit Iba
15.10
Little movement in either direction. The building continues. People entering Nablus are not checked. 3 soldiers check the parcels of those exiting. The DCO representative, Tomer, and another soldier check the IDs of the women and older people. One detainee in the enclosure. Shizif the commander asks us to move away and threatens to call the police. We refuse and in the end he accepts our presence.
The woman soldier finds a blender in the parcels of a girl and tells her to take it apart. The girl does not want to do so as it will be hard for her to put it together again. The soldier brings a screwdriver and starts to undo the screws. Another soldier comes up to her and says "We all know this is a blender and it is impossible to put an explosive device in it. There are five soldiers and one starts to fasten the screws while the others go on checking.
The father of the detained man arrives and explains that his son works at a cement factory near the checkpoint. He had finished his work and was on his way to Deir Sharif. The soldiers saw him and have already held him for half an hour. S, the commander, says the man will sit in the enclosure until 4.00 . Soon the enclosure is filled with other young men.
15.30
Two soldiers looking at the fields in the direction of Qusin see 4 young men. They run after them and after having taken their IDs put them in the enclosure. 15 minutes and they take groups of young men including one who says he is a lawyer. But everyone is sent to the enclosure humiliated and shamed.
15.50
4 soldiers stand at the car lane and chat while cars wait. 5 minutes later the soldier motions a bus to come forward. The engine is shut down and the soldiers get in to check. Then 14 young men get out and go to the turnstiles. In the meantime the bus and all the cars wait. 10 minutes later the bus is motioned forward to wait for the young men and the other cars can also proceed.
16.00
There are 16 detainees who have tried to bypass the checkpoint. Elisheva phones the centre and Dana says she will try to help.
16.20
A bus with sacks of sesame seeds leaves Nablus and is sent to the side of the road. The driver wants to raise the covering and a woman soldier arrives with the dog which gets on to the truck and starts to sniff. Elisheva goes nearer and the soldier stops her checking and says she will not continue until Elisheva goes back and the soldier with her warns Elisheva not to photograph the dog because it is military equipment. Elisheva moves and the dog goes on sniffing.
16.35 The truck is allowed through.
Jit
There is no checkpoint and at the entrance to Azzun the road is blocked to cars but there are no soldiers.
'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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