Azzun, Habla - We went out on duty filled with packages for delivery
Each time the car fills to the roof with bags of clothing, parcels of kitchen utensils and everything you bring us for our friend Z., we know it’s time for us to set out on another shift.
So we left for ‘Azzun. There’s not even a single military vehicle on the way, even at the entrance to ‘Azzun. We saw no soldier until we reached the Habla checkpoint. I wonder why? Did they finish harassing the Palestinians and break for a siesta?
Z. isn’t home. He’s running errands. He and his son are currently blacklisted, after soldiers broke into their home one night, upended everything and took K., his eldest son, to jail. Why? For no reason, there was never a reason, so they released him after a while. But now he’s blacklisted, and his father also, lest he seek revenge. That’s how the system works.
We give all the parcels to his good-natured sons, say hello to his wife and continue on our way.
Traffic at the Habla checkpoint is unhurried. Afternoon. The female soldiers skip one part of the inspections; A. says they do so only in the afternoon. It’s hot outside. Not many vehicles, and very few people on foot. An elderly woman approaches us for help getting to a hospital in Israel for an operation. She says she worked twelve years for a flower grower in Ra’anana where she fell and injured her leg. She has permits, documents, papers, everything she needs to have an operation. We ask, why don’t you go to a hospital in Nablus? And with an embarrassed smile she admits that she’s scared…
A., at the plant nursery, updates us about what’s happening in the area. Palestinians are currently focused on crossing through gaps in the fence to Tel Aviv and the sea. A. says the authorities usually ignore these crossings but occasionally stop someone and send them back to the West Bank. That happened to his nephew’s family. Nevertheless, you can see many Palestinians on the beach, and it’s a happy sight.
'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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