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Irtah (Sha’ar Efrayim)

Place: Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim)
Tags: Crowding
Observers: Tammar H. (reporting), Edith M. (translating)
Jun-08-2014
| Morning
We arrived a few minutes before 4:00, and the checkpoint opened promptly at 4:00. As usual, we heard noise from the crowd as we approached. When we came closer we saw a larger crowd than two weeks ago. There was shoving in the tunnel leading to the gates. After a few minutes the pressure eased, but it returned around 5:30.
The first workers passed through the checkpoint in just 5 minutes from when it opened. Later we measured times and estimated that it took about 15 minutes to pass through.
The women's gate was closed, and women again had to go through unimaginable crowding. Some women stood aside and waited, others passed through with the men.
One young man showed us his shirt was torn and his hand was scratched, he said from the crowding.
Out of 12 positions in the checkpoint, only 5 were manned, which increased the pressure in the tunnel since large numbers of people couldn't enter the checkpoint at a time.
I phoned the manager of the checkpoint, waking him up, and he promised to check why only 5 positions were active. He didn't get back to me and I suspect that he didn't check. It is unacceptable that on Sunday, the busiest day of the week, only 5 lanes are open!
Someone told us that at Qalqiliya (Eyal Checkpoint) Palestinian police maintain order. Qalqiliya is in Area A, and Irtah is in Area C, where the Palestinian Authority and its police don't have control. Someone needs to maintain order. We can't accept that women suffer from pushing and harassment, men are injured, and we were told that two weeks ago someone suffocated.
 

  • 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.  
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