Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim)
The gates opened a few minutes before 4:00, which eased matters a lot.
Passage was quick, and we didn’t see any problems. When we checked times, a woman got through in seven minutes, while men took up to fifteen minutes.
One of the men asked us to report a problem he noticed: ever since the new gate was installed, that makes vehicles go into the parking lot instead of crowding around the entrance to the checkpoint, pedestrians also need to walk through the parking lot to get to the road. There should be a way to let pedestrians through separate path from the vehicles. The parking lot is very crowded with minibuses and other vehicles, there is a very real danger of accidents.
We wish everyone a happy New Year, a year of good relations and easy passage.
Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim)
See all reports for this place-
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.
-