Habla: the gate closed before everyone got through
Junction “Gitai Avisar” is the meeting of roads #505 and #5
We travelled there because we had received a message from a man from Haris that there are checkpoints there and the soldiers are harassing people arriving from the whole northern West Bank in the southward direction, to Ramallah etc.
At the junction there are 3 manned booths. The soldiers say that they are guarding the people going through. We found the soldiers to be quite pleasant, from a combat unit, who were placed there for just a week. One of them said that their job was to improve the behavior there since there were complaints about the brutality of the soldiers towards the Palestinians. All of them were pleasant and the crossing in every direction was simple and calm.
Therefore, we went to the house of the man from Haris who had reported the problem to us. He was a wonderful man who spoke excellent Hebrew, so it was easy to communicate with him. He told us that there were instances of brutality toward the Palestinians who passed through, and they even tied them up in handcuffs and left them there for extended periods of time. This week it is quiet.
We decided to continue in the direction of highway #55. We crossed the Shomron and passed over to the area of Nofim and Immanuel. A beautiful road crossing Nahal Kanah and arriving at the junction of Jinsafut. Traffic was flowing freely on highway #55. We turned in the direction of Azzun, a very well fenced area. The fence is higher than in the not-so-distant past. The gate to the village was totally closed.
The only way to get there was to travel to the traffic circle before the entrance to Qalqilya and to turn there onto the old road to Nebi Elias and then continue by the entrance to ‘Izbet Tabib until Azzun where we were told there is a checkpoint where you must pass inspection.
The entrance which used to go from highway #55 to ‘Izbet Tabib and onward to Azzun was blocked.
We continued to Habla where the gate was supposed to open at 13:00 and indeed it did open and 10 people went through to Habla from the nurseries as well as a few vehicles and then the soldiers closed the gate. They needed to go somewhere and would return when they are finished with whatever they had to do there. The gate was closed and all those waiting to cross were left standing there and there was nothing to do about it. That’s how it is. Their time and their lives don’t interest anyone.
Location Description
'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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