Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim), Sun 9.10.11, Morning

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Place:

Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim)

Observers:

Ruti R and a aguest , Translator: Judith Green.

Oct-9-2011

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Morning

About 200 Palestinians wait for the opening of the gate.

03:55 The turnstyles open. Groups of about 70 enter, until the turnstyles are locked again for half a minute, and then re-open. The passage is quick.

04:00 Loudspeaker: "Good morning, beginning work".

About 04:07 we already see the first people coming out on the Israeli side and going to their transport.

04:15 Two turnstyles in constant operation. People arrive and immediately go through, relaxed, staying in line from the turnstyle to the magnometer; certainly not running or pushing as we have seen here in the last couple of days. The problem of a separate line for woman seems to have solved itself: there simply aren't so many people, so body to body contact is avoided.

04:25 Dozens of people continuously arrive (in yellow taxis). By 4:30, 1293 men have gone through, 71 women. That is a large number for half an hour! The parking lot on the Israeli side is full of people and taxis. Also on the Palestinian side, the parking lot fills up with the private cars of the people going through.

04:45 Heavy crowd. Hundreds of people wait on the Palestinian side, go through quite quickly. Now groups of 30-40 go through and the turnstyles close once in a while for a number of minutes.

04:55 100 people pass through and then it is closed again for 5 minutes.

04:30-5:00 973 men and 31 women went through. The youth from the guard company is pretty polite, quiet (not barking out orders all the time as sometimes happens here). He asks to go through with bags at the magnometer, except for troublemakers...

05:00 -05:30 936 men and 8 women went through. The pressure decreases. From 5:30 until we left at 6:30, another 960 and 8 women had gone through. Altogether, this morning by 6:30 about 4300 men and women, more than I have ever counted, went through. Maybe this is because they are not letting workers through at all at Eliyahu Gate? and this forces them to go by way of Eyal and Irtach?

Location Description

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.