‘Azzun, Eliyahu Crossing, Habla, Irtah (Sha’ar Efrayim), Wed 23.3.11, Afternoon
Translator: Charles K.
12:59 Habla gate. Three horse cards and some people waiting for the gate to open. It opens exactly at 13:00 and they go through. A school bus arrives from the other side, crosses, as do two tractors and a jeep to the greenhouses. We left at 13:20, a pickup truck and tractors waiting to cross. The second school bus – with the girls – hadn’t arrived. A few Palestinians waiting on the eastern side of the fence, we’re not sure why. Shoshi tries to approach and speak to them; “Beat it!,” says the soldier.
We continue to Alfei Menasheh. Two settlers in a jeep at the turn to Ras A-Tira beep their horn to stop us and find out where we’re going. The new gate is closed, as usual.
We continue to the Eliyahu crossing – a few cars with Israeli plates waiting on the eastern side to return to Israel.
13:45 A flying checkpoint and an army vehicle at the entrance to Azzun. Soldiers stop Palestinian vehicles for inspection, including opening the trunk. We cross without being checked. Karin buys booklets in Arabic at a print shop in Azzun for Palestinian children in Israeli hospitals.
We continue to Jayyous. We get on a road that starts at a plaza at the entrance to Azzun and goes under Route 55. We passed the village of Khirbet Sir – many new houses. North to Kafr Jamal, Jayyous to our left. Infrastructure work all along the way – paving roads, stone sidewalks, lightposts, etc.
Falamya gate is open 12 hours a day. One tractor goes through on its way back to the village.
Up to Kafr Jamal on the steep paved road. Signs to Tulkarm all along the road – the usual road is closed for repairs – and we take the bypass until we reach Kafr Sur. One of the villagers tells us that owners of the lands beyond the separation barrier (most of them olive groves) aren’t being given permits to reach their land, except when the army decides to grant them (during the olive harvest). His family owns 50 dunums on the other side of the separation barrier. Only people aged 50 or older are given permits, and only during the season. Kafr Sur has 4000 inhabitants. The mayor submits the requests.
Because of the road works we arrived by mistake at Gate 753 – Khirbet Jebara. We were given directions how to proceed. Only farmers and residents of Khirbet Jebara use this gate.
We reached the northern Te’anim gate (Jubara) on a road for Palestinian & Israeli Palastinians traffic . The soldiers stop and question us – what are we doing, where are we coming from, do we belong to any organizations. They took our ID, and more questions: where do we live, what do we do, etc. They took our ID’s to check, and asked us to park off to the side. Then they came to inspect the car – including the trunk. They have questions about the Arabic booklets Karin bought – are they seditious? They took them to photocopy. They also checked the glove compartment. Questions about Karin’s cameras in the trunk. Finally, after we told them we’d come from the south, not from the north (Tulkarm), and they explained how dangerous it was for Israeli Jews to be in a Palestinian town, they let us continue. An Israeli car inspected carefully – including by a dog with a handler.
After being released we drove on to Irtach/Efrayim gate. A flow of laborers returning from their work in Israel. One asks for advice about helping his brother, prevented by the GSS from entering Israel for business, and about a friend who has to enter Israel for medical treatment. Karin gives him the relevant phone numbers.
'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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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.
Ronit Dahan-RamatiApr-25-2025Habla Checkpoint: system of gates
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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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