Habla, Irtah (Sha’ar Efrayim), Wed 2.6.10, Morning
Translation: Suzanne O.
Arta, the dawn shift
4:40 a.m.
The whole car park has been shifted to the sandy area. There is heavy traffic entering, 3 turnstiles are functioning, each minute 30 – 40 people go through. The public address system announces to some of the labourers that they must go back again to the magnometer.
5:00 a.m.
We moved over to the exit. The turnstile at the exit creaks with everyone who goes through. According to those exiting the inspections are swift today, and people wait for an hour or half an hour for transport to their place of work. (We were asked to come on a Sunday because then there are problems.)
In spite of the slight anxiety felt before the meeting Nora and I found that no one seemed to be aware of the flotilla. They have more pressing worries.
5:15 a.m.
The queue is still long but moves quickly and we could see the end of it.
Ayal
5:30 a.m.
Although the queue is not long there were complaints from those exiting about the inspection taking almost an hour. Because of this they are forced to come so early. We met a worker who introduced himself as a member of the workers' committee. They have been made responsible lately for the organisation of the queue and stopping the pushing. People stand in an orderly queue and enter accordingly. A member of the committee looks after the queue every morning. He complained about the long inspection in the rooms and that people are fearful of going through the x-ray machine lane so the other lane has a longer queue and takes more time.
6:20 a.m.
Those going through still report that there are lots of people in the building.
Chabala
6:45 a.m.
A military command car arrives to open the gate. There were 2 people waiting, one with a pick-up truck and one with a donkey and cart, they will still have to wait … the roadblock commander was extremely rude to us, claimed that we were interfering and closed the gate in our faces. Meanwhile there was an electrical failure and we were all forced to wait for another quarter of an hour.
After a time a school bus arrived. The commander let it wait for a very long time and then boarded the bus and started a lengthy inspection of the 'big children' (who are only going to their school in the village). Meanwhile a military jeep, which appeared to be in a hurry, came. It hooted in vain, then the captain got out of the jeep and ordered the commander to stop his inspection of the bus. "And thus security was abandoned".
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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