Movement and access restrictions

About one-third of East Jerusalem’s Palestinian residents, more than 100,000 people, currently live on the other side of the Separation Barrier and permanent checkpoints. As noted in the report on the 58th year of occupation, immediately following October 7, 2023 all peripheral checkpoints surrounding East Jerusalem were closed, abruptly cutting off Palestinian residents living beyond the barrier from their urban hub. The placement of temporary checkpoints and roadblocks between neighborhoods within East Jerusalem further restricted freedom of movement for Palestinian residents, resulting in their forced isolation. With the exception of localized mitigations, movement restrictions continue.

Kafr Aqab, a Jerusalem neighborhood and home to tens of thousands of Israeli permanent residents and citizens, lies beyond the Separation Barrier. Traffic to and from the neighborhood is funneled through a handful of crossings, all of which have checkpoints that restrict both pedestrian and vehicular traffic and which have disrupted the daily lives of neighborhood residents for more than two years. Not only have conditions failed to improve after the Gaza ceasefire was announced, they have, in fact, worsened, as detailed in the November 2025 update to the petition on the matter (Hebrew). Unlike in the past, the pedestrian terminal at the main crossing, Qalandia, is now closed in the evening; screening procedures have been tightened; and those attempting to cross the checkpoint face arbitrary and inconsistent demands, including requiring teenagers to recite their ID numbers. The vehicle crossing also randomly shuts down on some nights without notice. Public transportation users, including the elderly, medical patients and people with disabilities, are often required to disembark from buses and undergo physical searches. Movement was further restricted when the war with Iran broke out and a roadblock was installed in another entrance in late February 2026. Framed at the time as a temporary measure, this checkpoint continues to operate and is intermittently closed at varying times of day and night without notice.

Movement restrictions impede medical evacuations and rapid responses by emergency services. Expedited passage is available only to individuals with special permits, but no new permits have been issued since January 2025. In August 2025, ACRI and HaMoked filed an HCJ petition on behalf of seven seriously ill patients from Kafr Aqab, seeking expedited passage through the less-congested Al-Jib checkpoint. The petition argued that the current policy is arbitrary and unreasonable and that it violates patients’ rights to life, health, and dignity. The petitioners’ demands were accepted after several hearings and motions. The Jerusalem District Border Police would let patients travel to hospitals and other medical facilities in the city through the Al-Jib checkpoint, which allows safe and rapid access, waive arbitrary conditions for approving passage (for instance, having only one person escort the patient when two individuals have permits, or restricting permits to six months), and provide reasons for rejecting applications. On May 6, 2026, the Court ruled that the petition had been exhausted, struck it, and issued a costs order against the respondents.

The a-Sawahrah a-Sharqiyah enclave: The Separation Barrier cut off part of the village of a-Sawahrah a-Sharqiyah and the Abu M’eira neighborhood of Jabal al-Mukkaber, both located within Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries, from the rest of the city. In a-Sawahrah a-Sharqiyah, this has forced 6,000 residents to cross a checkpoint daily to enter Jerusalem where they work, study, receive medical care, and more. Until recent years, and based on the undertaking by the State in the Salameh High Court case, most enclave residents were allowed to cross the checkpoint on foot around the clock and by vehicle during the day. In recent years, however, many residents have encountered bureaucratic hurdles pertaining to registration and approval for vehicle passage. Numerous appeals by residents on this matter have been fruitless, and their freedom of movement has been unlawfully restricted in breach of the legal framework set for travel in this section of the Separation Barrier. In the absence of a response, HaMoked filed a petition on behalf of the residents, and a hearing has been scheduled for June 2026.

Further reading:

Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Allow Seriously Ill Residents of Kfar Aqab to Pass Through a Less-Congested Checkpoint, May 6, 2026

HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual, Petitioners’ response in the petition against the closure of Qalandia Checkpoint – HCJ 8026/23 (Hebrew)

Association for Civil Rights in Israel, To Open the Qalandia Checkpoint for Regular and Full Movement