Habla, Irtah (Sha’ar Efrayim)
4:30 When we arrive, some minibuses are already leaving. For a change the access road is clear, the minibuses are lined up in the parking lot.
4:35 The lines are flowing at the entrance to the checkpoint. We pick two men to watch for.
4:40 The exit is also flowing. We spotted one man we were looking for, he got through in fifteen minutes. We didn't see the other one. Signs of Ramadan: almost no one has a food hamper, and many men are sleeping with their heads on the curb.
4:55 Back at the Palestinian side, the turnstiles are limiting access again. The guards halt and release the turnstiles. We picked a woman to watch for. She got through in ten minutes.
5:15 We leave.
5:55 We got to Hable early, but a few people are already waiting on the far side of the fence.
6:12 The soldiers arrive. They unlock the big gate near us.
6:15 Dozens of people are standing in line at the gate. A soldier locks the gate she opened a few minutes before, but won't explain why. They open the narrow gate for foot traffic.
6:18 The first five people are allowed to start the checking process.
6:22 The first people get through the checkpoint and enter the seamline zone. Two men pass bicycles through the first gate and leave them there.
6:25 After getting cleared, the two retrieve their bicycles.. A minibus drops off more people near the gate. When I ask, a man tells me that vehicles aren't allowed through until 7:00.
6:30 We leave.
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.
Nina SebaAug-18-2025Habla: The gate is in the process of closing
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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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