A Palestinian man climbs over the Israeli Separation Wall and descends by rope into the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina.
Amid tightening restrictions on movement, many Palestinians, like this man, risk their lives scaling the Separation Wall to enter Jerusalem, often to earn a living or to pray at al-Aqsa Mosque. In trying to reach Jerusalem, they face the risk of injury, death, arrest, or assault by Israeli forces.
Under Israeli rule, Palestinians who hold Palestinian Authority (PA) IDs and live outside Jerusalem in the rest of the occupied West Bank are not allowed to enter Jerusalem unless they apply for and carry an entry permit from the Israeli COGAT. Since Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, all entry permits for hundreds of thousands of ordinary laborers have been canceled, leaving many if not most Palestinians without any means to make a living.
Hence, laborers are resorting to high-risk routes in desperation.
Since October 2023, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has documented the killing by Israeli live fire of at least 10 Palestinians who were attempting to cross through informal openings in the wall, mostly in the Tulkarm and Qalqilya governorates. This surge comes amid rising unemployment in the West Bank. An additional 113 have been injured under similar circumstances—up from 15 injuries and no fatalities during the first nine months of 2023, before October 7, 2023.1