Report from MW team helping remove preventions of entry to Israel

Three Years of Closure — Palestinians in the West Bank Have No Livelihood Nor Adequate Medical Care
written by Guni Tsur and Sylvia Piteman
December 2025

For years, we assisted thousands of Palestinians in obtaining permits for work, trade, and medical treatment in Israel by submitting orderly applications to remove security restrictions, in accordance with the procedures that were in place. In many cases, it came to light that the restriction was unjustified and was lifted. In addition, we helped applicants submit requests for travel permits despite police restrictions, some of which were approved.

 

 

 

Since October 8th, 2023, a comprehensive closure has been imposed on the Palestinian population of the West Bank, and holders of permits to enter Israel have no longer been allowed to cross to their workplaces, except for a few exempted locations (medical institutions, the food industry, certain industrial zones, and a few others). In the settlements, work continued as usual, and over time new permits were gradually issued for workers there.

At the same time, the authorities announced that it was no longer possible to request the removal of restrictions. Many people were arrested, and their family members turned to us for help in locating them. We referred those seeking assistance to HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual, which handles the tracing of detainees.

At the end of December 2024, we began submitting requests to remove security restrictions. Each request was submitted for work in a location exempt from the closure—either in Israel or in the settlements—emphasizing that there was no reason not to process requests for places that already employ Palestinian workers. We warned applicants not to pay for employer letters, since it was unclear whether the requests would be processed at all. The first applications submitted were forwarded for handling, and within hours, 100% of them received rejection responses.

For example, after a hospital nurse filed a petition with the court, including documentation of how the requests were being handled, the authorities stopped processing applications altogether. In recent months, people have been submitting requests on their own, online, to remove restrictions—but the requests are not being processed.

The overwhelming majority of the Palestinian population is in horrific distress, to the point of actual hunger. This is a grave and appalling problem, both morally and from a security standpoint.

 

Since the beginning of the war, we have focused primarily on submitting crossing permit applications for patients in need of medical treatment in hospitals in Israel and for their accompanying persons. It should be noted that a significant portion of these requests is for treatment in Palestinian hospitals in East Jerusalem, which also require a permit in order to receive care. There is no alternative to these hospitals in the West Bank.

Initially, a small number of requests were approved, but even when no response was received, permits were sometimes issued—often late or only partially approved for treatment—causing fatal harm to patients.

However, since the end of 2024, policy has been drastically tightened. Throughout 2025, requests were not answered at all, despite our appeals to all relevant bodies in the Civil Administration and even to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).

Two stories, among many, illustrating the cruel conduct of the bureaucracy toward Palestinians in the West Bank who require medical treatment:

• A young man suffering from severe cancer, married, applied for a permit to receive radiation therapy at Augusta Victoria Hospital (in East Jerusalem). This is life-saving treatment that does not exist in the West Bank, yet all of his requests—and ours—were denied. Time passed, and the family petitioned the court (with the assistance of the organization Legal Aid for Palestinians). The judge ordered the immediate issuance of a permit, and the patient did reach the hospital—but too late. He died the following day.

 

• An elderly man with cancer was summoned for essential treatments at Rambam Hospital in Haifa. He received a permit for himself and for one companion—his wife. However, she is elderly and ill and was unable to accompany him. His sons (one of whom is a physician) applied for permits, but none of them received approval. The man died due to lack of treatment.

In recent months, there has been a significant escalation in punishment for entering Israel without a permit: many months of imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 shekels, which can be commuted only by an additional prison term. There is currently no way to address police restrictions, except in cases involving open files.

*This has also been a very sad period for us personally. We lost three dear and devoted team members who passed away this year — Elka Bitan, Edna Peretz, and Neta Efroni, may their memory be a blessing. All three were part of MachsomWatch’s long-standing Jerusalem group.