The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates warned in a statement that the checkpoints are an “atrocious collective punishment against the Palestinians” and are reminiscent of the worst apartheid regimes in history.

They also “restrict the lives of citizens and control their movement within cities, towns and refugee camps.” “This policy fragments the West Bank and turns it into a large prison,” it denounced.

The Ministry also expressed its deep astonishment at the silence of the international community in the face of this situation, especially those countries that claim to care about human rights. “The world must take urgent measures to lift all these barriers and facilitate the movement of Palestinians,” it stressed.

At the end of January, the director general of Publications and Documentation of the Authority for Resistance to the Wall and Settlements, Amir Daoud, denounced that at that date 898 checkpoints were in operation, although several more have been placed since then. Of that number, 146 were erected after the start of the war in the Gaza Strip in October 2023, he specified.

Ismat Mansour, an expert on Israeli affairs, told the Wafa news agency that this policy is part of the strategy to colonize the West Bank. The barriers affect the movement of citizens, trade, business and communications, he stressed, and stressed that the goal is to make the West Bank uninhabitable, it is a form of silent deportation.

For his part, Salah Hussein, director general of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorates, explained that the checkpoints affect the process of distributing products in the markets of the territory. Trucks sometimes wait for more than seven hours at one of these checkpoints, which greatly hinders the arrival of goods to other governorates, including food and medicine, he said, noting that 80 percent of Palestinian businesses and merchants say that their activity is affected by the checkpoints.

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