No sooner had the ceasefire taken effect in Gaza than the Israeli army began its widespread harassment in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. While the headlines were focused on the destruction and killing at northern West Bank refugee camps, the Israeli restrictive and oppressive actions affecting general mobility were much more widespread.

Already, by the end of 2024, Israel had installed upwards of 225 new checkpoints across the West Bank since launching its war on Gaza on October 7, 2023.1 On Sunday, January 19, 2025, the day the ceasefire took effect, Israel began increasing further the number of checkpoints, installing 17 more electronic metal gates and numerous checkpoints at the entrances to cities, villages, and streets across the West Bank. They tightened restrictions on freedom of movement between these cities and villages, isolating them from one another.2

Israeli military checkpoints come in two basic varieties: permanent and temporary.

In March 2022, Jerusalem Story published a Backgrounder about the well-protected permanent checkpoints around Jerusalem, detailed in photos, maps, and charts (see Checkpoints, Part 1: Severing Jerusalem).3

The below map plots the location of the main checkpoints around Jerusalem. Palestinians carrying Palestinian Authority (PA) cards are only allowed to use three of them: Qalandiya checkpoint in the north, Checkpoint 300 in the south, and al-Zaytun/Ras Abu Sbitan in the east. 

While Palestinians are aware of the permanent checkpoints and can attempt to plan ahead when having to reach a location that requires passing one, the temporary ones are the most brutal. Palestinians call them tayyar or flying checkpoints. They can take many forms, including gates, earth mounds, earth walls, trenches or ditches, and all manner of road barriers.4 

Flying checkpoints come out of nowhere unexpectedly, forcing people to wait for much longer than at the permanent checkpoints, and if you are caught unaware in a line of traffic at one, you are literally stuck without the ability to address basic needs.

If it is cold (or extremely hot) and you need to keep your car running for heat or air conditioning, you risk running out of gas. If you have children or are elderly, you also are stuck without being able to deal with being stuck for hours without any knowledge of when this restrictive ordeal will end.

While many around the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) have become used to such restrictions, the latest sharp increase in these temporary checkpoints caught many off guard.

Abdul Aziz Abbas, 45, from Jerusalem, described to Jerusalem Story his situation due to the recent Israeli measures that have made the life of a Jerusalemite extremely difficult. “I think a thousand times before heading to any of the cities and towns near Jerusalem, because we are afraid that we will not be able to return, and if we return, it may cost us many hours of our day, and now with the holy month of Ramadan, the situation will not be easy at all.”5

According to a Field Report from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), published on February 1, 2025, Israel had already installed more than 82 checkpoints and metal gates around the (Palestinian) Jerusalem governorate (see Interactive Map, Palestinian Jerusalem Governorate—Muhfazat al-Quds). In fact, of the Palestinian governorates in the West Bank, Jerusalem registered the fourth-highest number of checkpoints following Hebron (229), Ramallah/al-Bira (156), and Nablus (147), with Bethlehem fourth with 65 checkpoints.6

Since the morning hours of Sunday, January 19, 2025, the Israeli army has also tightened and intensified military procedures at all checkpoints and military points in and around East Jerusalem, such as conducting intensive searches of each car.7 Those closures take place in conjunction with restrictions, some of them repeatedly, in addition to closing a number of metal gates at the entrances to towns and neighborhoods in the city.

For example, on January 19, 2025, a new metal gate was installed on the road nearby the Jaba‘ checkpoint, which separates the towns of al-Ram and Jaba‘ and is the main entrance to the Ramallah and al-Bira governorates and Jerusalem. The new gate causes major traffic jams from 5:00 a.m. late into the night. The report also noted that the Jaba‘ checkpoint was repeatedly being closed, alongside tightening to security measures at the adjacent Qalandiya checkpoint, which is used by tens of thousands of Palestinians each day (see Closure and Access to Jerusalem). Opening hours have also been reduced in some cases, with checkpoints that were formerly open 24/7 suddenly being closed during morning and evening rush hours.

Security searches at three other checkpoints—al-Za‘ayim, Shu‘fat refugee camp, and Hizma—have also ratcheted up since January 19, causing major traffic jams, hampering mobility, and severely restricting the movement of citizens, and disrupting residents in abutting neighborhoods.

Ilona Gaudi, Humanitarian Affairs Associate—Media Relations and Public Information for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian Territories (oPT) told Jerusalem Story:

Khader Ahmed, 55, from Jerusalem, told Jerusalem Story he has to leave his house in al-‘Izariyya (Bethany), which had always been a nearby suburb of Jerusalem, at 4:00 a.m. before the Israeli police close the entrance to the town around 5:00 a.m. until 7:00 a.m. in order to enable settlers from the large Israeli settlement of Ma‘ale Adumim and its surroundings to quickly cross the al-Za‘ayim checkpoint. The closure creates a major crisis in the village, which is only two minutes away from Jerusalem. Because of the checkpoints and the Separation Wall, residents must make a detour that takes at least an hour.

Now the Israeli authorities have announced that they are in the process of excavating and paving the only road that leads from Jerusalem to the village of al-‘Izariyya, and from there to the southern West Bank, and that this road work may take a long time, which means untold suffering for the residents of the West Bank including East Jerusalem who live in this village or commute through it.

Abdullah Fauzi, a banker from Nablus whose morning commute has quadrupled from one hour to four, commented to Associated Press, “Whatever this is, they’ve planned it well. It’s well designed to make our life hell.”

The unpredictability of when and where these checkpoints occur and the time it takes to go through has forced many to look for technological ways to stay aware. Amir al-Sayed, 23, from the Shu‘fat neighborhood, told Jerusalem Story that he subscribes to more than one WhatsApp group in order to know the condition of the roads before he moves from his home. Each neighborhood and city has its own chat group, all of which share details of the roadside conditions in Bethlehem, Hebron, Ramallah, Jericho, and the various Jerusalem neighborhoods. One social media account that charges for this information has 188,000 followers on Facebook.9 Another digital site provides a live feed view so one can determine traffic conditions before setting out.10

International organizations have hired the services of a company or appointed staff with the express goal of offering them up-to-date information about the status of checkpoints and how long it will take to cross them at any given point in time.

Al-Sayed added that he uses those apps to make decisions and to plan ahead, especially since he works in Bethlehem. He recalls that once he left his house at 7:00 a.m. and did not return until 10:00 p.m., although normally the drive between his house and his workplace does not exceed 20 minutes. “The reason for this delay is the widespread military checkpoints and what we call flying checkpoints that appear and disappear suddenly and depend more on the mood of the soldier at the checkpoint. God, life is difficult in Jerusalem.”

Dr. Talal Abu Afifa, a member of the General Secretariat of the General Union for Palestinian Writers and a resident of Jerusalem, told Jerusalem Story that the situation has become catastrophic during the past year and a half.

Now attention turns to how Israel is dealing with Jerusalem in the month Ramadan, which started in March 1, 2025. A senior Waqf Department official, speaking anonymously, told Jerusalem Story that it is up to Israel whether to calm the situation by easing measures in and around Jerusalem or to increase tensions by tightening those measures. “If Israel chooses the latter, it means tension that may lead to the unforeseen and an escalation that increases the difficulty of life in the holy city.”12

He ended by saying, “May God protect you, Jerusalem, and may God protect al-Aqsa.”