Azzun, Habla - "The soldiers are really not nice"
At the entrance to road 55, north of the new square, there’s a road that leads to a new checkpoint, an entrance and exit to and from Qalqilya.
According to A., Our friend from the nursery, sometimes it’s opened and sometimes closed. Passage there is unreliable.
At the entrance to ‘Azzun, the road is being widened. A military vehicle is parked there monitoring the traffic. As we film the road-works, one of the workers, an Israeli, approaches us and questions us about who we are, what we are doing there, and why we’re filming. As a matter of principle, we refuse to give him details and content ourselves with vague answers. It is mainly important for him to know where we are from. When we start driving towards ‘Azzun, he shouts after us – be careful, this is enemy territory.
It is quiet in ‘Azzun. We unload at Z’s. the packages to his store. Z is at work. It’s not clear how he manages transport to work in the center of the country, but the scooter is parked near his house, and he had told Shoshi that he travels by bus.
His young son helps unload from the car. Suhad comes out and invites us inside for Coffee, but we want to get to the Habla checkpoint when it is open, so we politely decline, and say “Salaam Alai Abuk”.
The Habla checkpoint was opened on time at 13:20
The Habla checkpoint is open from 1:20 p.m. to 1:40 p.m. According to A. The soldiers who are currently there are really not nice, to say the least.
The traffic at the gate is brisk. Many vehicles transport goods to the nurseries, and many workers enter as well. There is also movement into Habla, here too saplings are being transported, it is not clear where to. The passers-by greet us kindly. The soldiers ignore us. The small gate to the left of the entrance gate to Habla is still missing. To my query, the soldier replies that it doesn’t matter, because the other gate is closed. And I think this is a hole that calls out to the undocumented workers.
There are no more breaches in the fence. Barbed wire fences everywhere seal off the passages.
In our conversation with Omar, he says that they have tightened the requirements at the checkpoint, they even ask children for a photo ID, and most of the passersby do not have one. And according to him, the soldier-girl speaks rudely, and he adds: If she were beautiful at least…
'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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Habla CP (1393)
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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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