Will ceasefire deal to end Israel-Hezbollah war achieve lasting peace for Lebanon?

Special Will ceasefire deal to end Israel-Hezbollah war achieve lasting peace for Lebanon?
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Hezbollah supporters parade on motorbikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs as people returned to check their homes on Nov. 27, 2024, after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect. (AFP)
Special Will ceasefire deal to end Israel-Hezbollah war achieve lasting peace for Lebanon?
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Hezbollah supporters parade on motorbikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs as people returned to check their homes on Nov. 27, 2024, after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect. (AFP)
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Updated 28 November 2024
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Will ceasefire deal to end Israel-Hezbollah war achieve lasting peace for Lebanon?

Will ceasefire deal to end Israel-Hezbollah war achieve lasting peace for Lebanon?
  • Iran welcomes “end of Israel’s aggression” despite terms requiring withdrawal and disarmament of its proxy Hezbollah
  • For Israel, the ceasefire is not necessarily an end to the war, but a pause in the fighting, according to analysts

BEIRUT/LONDON: The world has largely welcomed a ceasefire deal which ends 13 months of fighting betrween Israel and Hezbollah that has claimed the lives of at least 3,700 Lebanese and more than 130 Israelis.

The deal between the governments of Israel and Lebanon, brokered by the US and France, came into effect on Wednesday at 4 a.m. local time.

From the Israeli army’s perspective, the war in Lebanon was coming to a point of diminishing returns. It has succeeded in weakening Hezbollah’s military standing and eliminating its top leadership but has been unable to wipe it out entirely. For its part, Hezbollah has been seriously debilitated in Lebanon; the war has eroded its military capabilities and left it rudderless.

Looking at it optimistically, the diplomatic breakthrough — which unfolded on Tuesday night as Israel unleashed a barrage of bombs on central Beirut — could be the beginning of the end of the long-standing “Israel-Iran shadow war,” as a new administration prepares to assume power in Washington.

Hezbollah and the Israeli military began to exchange cross-border fire on Oct. 8, 2023, one day after Israel launched its assault on the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a deadly Hamas-led attack.

The conflict dramatically escalated on Sept. 23 this year, when Israel began heavily bombing several parts of Lebanon, including Hezbollah’s stronghold in the south. The airstrikes killed thousands of Lebanese, displaced some 1.2 million others, flattened residential buildings, and devastated 37 villages.

While the ceasefire deal calls for a 60-day halt in hostilities, President Joe Biden said that it “was designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities.” Negotiators have described it as laying the groundwork for a lasting truce.

Under the terms of the deal, Hezbollah will remove its fighters and arms from the region between the Blue Line and the Litani River, while Israeli troops will withdraw from Lebanese territory during the specified period.

Thousands of Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers will deploy to the region south of the Litani River. A US-led international panel will oversee compliance from all sides. However, uncertainty persists, as both Hezbollah and Israel have warned that they will resume fire if the other party breaches the agreement.




Lebanese army soldiers drive in Qana, southern Lebanon, on Nov. 27, 2024, after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect. (Reuters)

Hezbollah stated it would give the ceasefire pact a chance, but Mahmoud Qamati, the deputy chair of the group’s political council, stressed that Hezbollah’s support for the deal depends on clear assurances that Israel will not resume its attacks.

Likewise, Israel said it would attack if Hezbollah violated the agreement. The army’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, also urged residents of southern Lebanese villages — who had fled in recent months — to delay returning home until further notice from the Israeli military.

David Wood, a senior Lebanon analyst with the International Crisis Group, believes that while the ceasefire is desperately needed, it “will almost certainly not bring Lebanon’s troubles to an end.

“Many of the country’s displaced may not be able to return home for months, as Israel has razed entire villages near the Blue Line border,” he said. “Meanwhile, Hezbollah’s domestic foes claim they will no longer accept the group’s dominance over Lebanese politics — a pledge that promises still more instability.”




United Nations peacekeepers patrol in the southern Lebanese village of Zibqin on Nov. 27, 2024, as people returned to check on their homes after a ceasefire between the warring sides took effect. (AFP)

Firas Maksad, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, also cannot see this ceasefire bringing an end to Lebanon’s problems as the war has already triggered shifts in internal alliances.

Describing the deal as a “capitulation,” he said during an interview with the BBC that “the majority of the Lebanese people, including Hezbollah's own support base, did not want to see Lebanon dragged into this war.”

“After all this devastation, after Hezbollah having now to capitulate and withdraw away from that border north of the Litani River, having to accept an American-led mechanism led by a general who is part of CENTCOM in the region, this is going to be highly embarrassing,” he said. “And there's going to be a day of reckoning for Hezbollah in Lebanon once the ceasefire actually goes into effect.”




Israeli army forces stand outside a house that was hit by rockets fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon in the northern Israeli border town of Kiryat Shmona on Nov. 26, 2024, hours before a ceasefire agreement took effect. (AFP)

He added that politically, this means that “the various Lebanese parties and the various also alliances that had been in place before this war are no longer going to be there.”

“We saw, for example, Hezbollah’s crucial Christian ally distance itself from the group now, very much moving towards the center or even in opposition to Hezbollah.”

Gebran Bassil, leader of the Maronite Free Patriotic Movement and a close ally of Hezbollah since 2006, said earlier this month that his party is “not in an alliance with Hezbollah.”

In an interview with Al-Arabiya TV, he added that Hezbollah “has weakened itself and exposed its military strength, leaving Lebanon as a whole vulnerable to Israeli attacks.”




A man celebrates carrying a picture of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut's Dahiyeh district following a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah that went into effect on  Nov. 27, 2024. (AP)l 

Also acknowledging the toll on Hezbollah is Lebanese political analyst Ali Al-Amin. He expressed concern that, while the ceasefire deal is a positive development, its terms signal a significant shift for Hezbollah.

“People were happy at first glance about the ceasefire agreement, as it is a basic demand after a fierce, destructive war,” he told Arab News. “However, there are many (unanswered) questions, starting with the nature of the agreement and its content.

“In a first reading, I believe that Hezbollah’s function has ended. The prohibition of military operations and weapons, the necessity of destroying and dismantling weapons facilities, and the ban on the supply of weapons are all preludes to ending the party’s function.”

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Hezbollah’s main ally, Tehran, expressed support for the ceasefire. Esmaeil Baghaei, spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, welcomed the end of Israel’s “aggression against Lebanon.”

He also reaffirmed his country’s “firm support for the Lebanese government, nation and resistance.”

Before the Israeli cabinet approved the deal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the ceasefire would allow his country to “intensify” pressure on the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza and focus on the “Iranian threat.”




Residents who had fled the southern Lebanese border village of Shebaa return to their homes following a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah on Nov. 27, 2024. (AFP)

Mairav Zonszein, a senior Israeli analyst with the ICG, believes that “for Israel, the ceasefire is not necessarily an end to the war, but a pause” in fighting.

She said: “It will free up forces and resources to Israel’s other fronts in Gaza, the West Bank, and Iran, and is a chance to test out Israel’s ability to take military action to enforce the ceasefire, which is being sold as the main difference between the resolution that ended the 2006 war and this time around.”

Al-Amin believes Iran, Israel’s biggest adversary, has accepted this shift affecting its ally Hezbollah. However, he stressed that while the deal remains “subject to implementation,” it raises questions about the enforcement of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 and Washington’s role in overseeing its execution.




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Echoing Al-Amin’s concern, Heiko Wimmen, ICG project director for Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, said: “The ceasefire is based on the commitment of both Lebanon and Israel to finally implement Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.

“The challenges are the same as 18 years ago, namely, how to make sure that both parties comply in the long term and what to do with Hezbollah’s military capabilities, which constitute a threat to the security of Israel, and potentially other Lebanese, whether they are present on the border or a few kilometers away.”

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who welcomed the ceasefire deal, reiterated on Wednesday his government’s commitment to implementing Resolution 1701.




Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati delivers a statement to the press in Beirut on Nov. 27, 2024, after a government meeting to discuss the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.  (AFP)

UN Security Council Resolution 1701, adopted to resolve the 2006 Lebanon war, called for a permanent ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, the establishment of a buffer zone free of armed personnel other than UN and Lebanese forces, Hezbollah’s disarmament and withdrawal from south of the Litani River, and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon.

However, Maksad of the Middle East Institute, emphasizes that implementing a ceasefire in Lebanon — US-led and otherwise — will demand more than just adhering to the deal’s terms, especially on the domestic front.

“There is a crucial need to rearrange the deck in Lebanon,” he said in an interview with the BBC.

“You need to elect a president in Lebanon, one that is a sovereign-minded president that would work with the Lebanese army and provide it with the political cover it needs to help and implement this resolution together with the UN troops that are there and also the international community.”




A displaced people make their way back to their homes in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh on Nov. 27, 2024, after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect. (AFP)

He added: “You also cannot begin the task — the mammoth task — of rebuilding, the reconstruction, the tune of billions of dollars if you don’t have a reform-minded government.”

And while the ceasefire brings a faint hope for Lebanon’s displaced population, many of those affected perceive its terms through the prism of personal loss, questioning what, if anything, had been gained from the war.

Nora Farhat, whose family home in Anqoun in Beirut’s southern suburbs was reduced to rubble, lamented that the agreement “will not restore our destroyed homes or bring back those who were killed — loved ones we have yet to bury.”

The scale of destruction in southern villages means return is not an option for many, who are left wondering about Hezbollah’s future and its ability to maintain its influence in the region.




Hezbollah supporters celebrate as they return to their destroyed homes in Beirut's southern suburbs, after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect on Nov. 27, 2024. (Reuters)

Analyst Al-Amin believes that Hezbollah’s immediate focus will likely shift to managing the domestic narrative.

“Hezbollah’s priority now will be how to reverse the defeat into victory at home, and how to prevent the Lebanese from questioning what happened and why it happened,” he said.

Some of those displaced from Shiite-majority villages in the south expressed frustration at being caught in the crossfire of Hezbollah’s conflicts with Israel.

For Ahmad Ismail, who was displaced from his home in south Lebanon, the war and its aftermath seemed “futile.”




A resident who had fled the southern Lebanese border village of Shebaa unloads personal belongings upon returning to his home on Nov. 27, 2024. (AFP)

He told Arab News: “There was no need to open a southern front under the slogan of supporting Gaza, as those who sought this war sought to humiliate us.

“If only we had implemented the May 17 agreement in the 1980s with Israel, we would have been spared wars, killing and destruction, and the Shiite sect would not have reached the point of displacement, death, and frustration it has reached today.”

Ismail, who was previously imprisoned in Israel, believes the ceasefire is the only positive aspect of the US-brokered truce deal.

“It is a good initiative toward making this the last of the wars and a step toward disarming illegal weapons,” he said. “It also paves the way for restoring the state to its role, which Hezbollah undermined by monopolizing decisions of war and peace without consulting anyone.”

Despite the Israeli military’s warning, Lebanese people displaced from their homes in the south began flocking to their villages.




Members of a displaced Lebanese family return to their village in Zibqin, southern Lebanon, on Nov. 27, 2024, to find their home demolished by Israeli strikes. (Reuters)

Ismail believes “people are currently in shock. Some still cannot believe that Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has been killed, and many have not yet seen what happened to their homes and villages.

“When they wake up from the trauma, we will see the repercussions.”

Ismail added: “A disaster has befallen the Lebanese people, and Hezbollah must be held accountable. Hezbollah is no longer able to mobilize the people through the power of weapons, excess force, and money.”

As Lebanon begins to pick up the pieces, many still wonder if this ceasefire will offer more than just a temporary reprieve — or if it will be the beginning of an uncertain future.


 


Israeli police raid Palestinian bookshop in east Jerusalem, claiming incitement to violence

Israeli police raid Palestinian bookshop in east Jerusalem, claiming incitement to violence
Updated 10 February 2025
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Israeli police raid Palestinian bookshop in east Jerusalem, claiming incitement to violence

Israeli police raid Palestinian bookshop in east Jerusalem, claiming incitement to violence

JERUSALEM: Israeli police have raided a long-established Palestinian-owned bookstore in east Jerusalem, detaining the owners and confiscating books about the decades-long conflict. The police said the books incited violence.
The Educational Bookshop, established over 40 years ago, is a hub of intellectual life in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed to its capital in a move not recognized internationally. Most of the city’s Palestinian population lives in east Jerusalem, and the Palestinians want it to be the capital of their future state.
The three-story bookstore that was raided on Sunday has a large selection of books, mainly in Arabic and English, about the conflict and the wider Middle East, including many by Israeli and Jewish authors. It hosts cultural events and is especially popular among researchers, journalists and foreign diplomats.
The bookstore’s owners, Ahmed and Mahmoud Muna, were detained, and police confiscated hundreds of titles related to the conflict before ordering the store’s closure, according to May Muna, Mahmoud’s wife.
She said the soldiers picked out books with Palestinian titles or flags, “without knowing what any of them meant.” She said they used Google Translate on some the Arabic titles to see what they meant before carting them away in plastic bags.
Police raided another Palestinian-owned bookstore in the Old City in east Jerusalem last week.
In a statement, the police said the two owners were arrested on suspicion of “selling books containing incitement and support for terrorism.”
As an example, the police referred to an English-language children’s coloring book entitled “From the River to the Sea,” a reference to the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea that today includes Israel, the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Palestinians and hard-line Israelis each view the entire area as their national homeland. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government is opposed to Palestinian statehood, has said Israel must maintain indefinite control over all the territory west of the Jordan.
Israeli-Palestinian tensions have soared since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of Gaza triggered the war there. A ceasefire has paused the fighting and led to the release of several Israeli hostages abducted in the attack as well as hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Tensions have also soared in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack and abducted around 250 people. The war the followed has killed over 47,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It does not say how many were fighters. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want all three territories for their future state. The last serious and substantive peace talks broke down after Netanyahu returned to power in 2009.


Iraq president sues PM over unpaid Kurdistan salaries

Iraq president sues PM over unpaid Kurdistan salaries
Updated 10 February 2025
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Iraq president sues PM over unpaid Kurdistan salaries

Iraq president sues PM over unpaid Kurdistan salaries
  • Lawsuit was only disclosed now due to protests over missed payments in Sulaimaniyah
  • Iraq’s public sector is wracked with inefficiency and corruption

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s president has sued Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani over unpaid salaries for civil servants in the autonomous region of Kurdistan, bringing into focus a rift in the country’s leadership.
President Abdul Latif Rashid, a Kurd, filed the lawsuit against Sudani and Finance Minister Taif Sami last month, but his adviser, Hawri Tawfiq, only announced it on Sunday.
The case, submitted to Iraq’s top court, seeks an order to ensure salaries are paid “without interruption” despite ongoing financial disputes between Baghdad and Irbil, the regional capital.
Iraq’s public sector is wracked with inefficiency and corruption, and analysts say Sudani and Rashid had long had disagreements.
While public sector workers received their January salaries, they are still waiting for their December pay.
Tawfiq said the lawsuit was only disclosed now due to protests over missed payments in Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan’s second-largest city and the president’s hometown.
Kurdistan regional president Nechirvan Barzani recently thanked Sudani for his cooperation on financial issues, including salaries.
On Sunday, hundreds of people from Sulaimaniyah attempted to protest in Irbil, but police used tear gas to disperse them, local media reported.
Others have staged a sit-in for two weeks in Sulaimaniyah, with 13 teachers resorting to a hunger strike.
Last year, Iraq’s top court ordered the federal government to cover the public sector salaries in Kurdistan instead of going through the regional administration — a demand employees in Sulaimaniyah have long called for.
But officials say payments have been erratic due to technical issues.
Political scientist Ihssan Al-Shemmari said the lawsuit underscores deepening tensions between Rashid and Sudani.
“We are facing a significant division within the executive authority, and it is now happening openly,” said Shemmari.
In January, Sudani ordered a probe into Rashid’s son’s company, IQ Internet Services.
MP Hanan Al-Fatlawi addressed Rashid on X, saying: “The fines on your son’s company IQ... are enough to pay the salaries” in Kurdistan.


World Governments Summit starts Tuesday with biggest billing in 12-year history

World Governments Summit starts Tuesday with biggest billing in 12-year history
Updated 10 February 2025
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World Governments Summit starts Tuesday with biggest billing in 12-year history

World Governments Summit starts Tuesday with biggest billing in 12-year history
  • This year’s summit will explore global transformations, focusing on opportunities and challenges across various sectors and key issues

DUBAI: The World Governments Summit has unveiled the theme of “Shaping Future Governments” for its 12th annual event held in Dubai from Feb. 11 to Feb. 13, state news agency WAM reported.

This year’s summit will explore global transformations, focusing on opportunities and challenges across various sectors and key issues.

The summit aims to foster the development of shared strategies and visions for enhanced global government performance and stronger international cooperation.

With more than 30 heads of states and government, delegations from 140 governments and representatives from more than 80 global institutions, this year’s summit anticipates record participation.

Attendance looks set to increase by over 50 percent compared to last year, representing the largest gathering in the Summit’s history, with delegates from every continent and a wide range of sectors.

Heads of state, including President of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto, President of Poland  Andrzej Duda, and President of Sri Lanka Kumara Dissanayake, will deliver keynote speeches.

Other speakers billed for the summit include Elon Musk, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, and Sir Tony Blair, former prime minister of the UK.

Mohammad Al-Gergawi, UAE minister of Cabinet affairs and chairman of the World Governments Summit, said that the event continued to provide exceptional support in empowering governments worldwide to navigate rapid transformations and evolving challenges across various sectors.

“The summit is committed to being the premier global platform to anticipate and explore the future, developing innovative solutions and forging international partnerships to benefit all communities based on scientifically and realistically grounded insights,” he added.

The summit’s final day will host the Climate Change Forum, the World Health Forum, and the World Government Law Making Forum.


UN accuses Sudan paramilitaries of blocking Darfur aid

UN accuses Sudan paramilitaries of blocking Darfur aid
Updated 10 February 2025
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UN accuses Sudan paramilitaries of blocking Darfur aid

UN accuses Sudan paramilitaries of blocking Darfur aid
  • The Rapid Support Forces controls nearly all of Darfur, a western region the size of France
  • Nearly seven million people in Darfur are facing crisis levels of hunger, UN-backed agency says

PORT SUDAN, Sudan: The United Nations on Monday accused Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces of blocking aid to the war-torn country’s famine-threatened Darfur region.
The RSF, which has been at war with the regular army since April 2023, controls nearly all of Darfur, a western region the size of France.
Since May, it has besieged North Darfur’s El-Fasher and attacked displacement camps nearby.
“The persistent restrictions and bureaucratic hurdles” imposed by the RSF’s humanitarian agency “are preventing life-saving assistance from reaching those in desperate need,” said Clementine Nkweta-Salami, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Sudan.
“The world is watching, and it is unacceptable that the humanitarian community in Sudan... is unable to deliver essential aid,” she said in a statement.
Famine has been declared in five areas of North Darfur and is expected to spread to five more by May, according to the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.
Nearly seven million people in Darfur are facing crisis levels of hunger, IPC figures show.
The UN on Monday urged simplified bureaucratic procedures and an end to undue interference, “including demands for logistical support or mandatory engagement with selected vendors.”
Since the war began, humanitarian workers have reported obstruction by both sides, looting of aid and threats against relief staff.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted 12 million and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.
Nearly 25 million people are facing dire food insecurity across Sudan, according to the United Nations.


After the ceasefire in Gaza, West Bank Palestinians face more Israeli barriers, traffic and misery

After the ceasefire in Gaza, West Bank Palestinians face more Israeli barriers, traffic and misery
Updated 10 February 2025
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After the ceasefire in Gaza, West Bank Palestinians face more Israeli barriers, traffic and misery

After the ceasefire in Gaza, West Bank Palestinians face more Israeli barriers, traffic and misery
  • Israel intensified its crackdown on the occupied West Bank, ramping up raids against militants in the north of the territory and subjecting Palestinians in the area to the strictest scrutiny

RAMALLAH: Abdullah Fauzi, a banker from the northern West Bank city of Nablus, leaves home at 4 a.m. to reach his job by 8, and he’s often late.
His commute used to take an hour — until Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, after which Israel launched its offensive in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military also ramped up raids against Palestinian militants in the northern West Bank, and diverted its residents through seven new checkpoints, doubling Fauzi’s time on the road.
Now it’s gotten worse.
Since the ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas took effect, Fauzi’s drive to the West Bank’s business and administrative hub, Ramallah, has become a convoluted, at least four-hour wiggle through steep lanes and farm roads as Israel further tightens the noose around Palestinian cities in measures it considers essential to guard against militant attacks.
“You can fly to Paris while we’re not reaching our homes,” the 42-year-old said from the Atara checkpoint outside Ramallah last week, as Israeli soldiers searched scores of cars, one by one.
“Whatever this is, they’ve planned it well,” he said. “It’s well-designed to make our life hell.”
A ceasefire begets violence
As the truce between Israel and Hamas took hold on Jan. 19, radical Israeli settlers — incensed over an apparent end to the war and the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli hostages — rampaged through West Bank towns, torching cars and homes.
Two days later, Israeli forces with drones and attack helicopters descended on the northern West Bank city of Jenin, long a center of militant activity.
More checkpoints started going up between Palestinian cities, slicing up the occupied West Bank and creating choke points the Israeli army can shut off on a whim. Crossings that had been open 24/7 started closing during morning and evening rush hours, upturning the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
New barriers — earthen mounds, iron gates — multiplied, pushing Palestinian cars off well-paved roads and onto rutted paths through open fields. What was once a soldier’s glance and head tilt became international border-like inspections.
Israel says the measures are to prevent Hamas from opening a new front in the West Bank. But many experts suspect the crackdown has more to do with assuaging settler leaders like Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister and an important ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has threatened to topple the government if Israel does not restart the war in Gaza.
“Israel now has a free hand to pursue what it has wanted to in the West Bank for a long time: settlement expansion, annexation,” said Tahani Mustafa, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group. “It was considered a potential trade-off.”
Asked why Israel launched the crackdown during the ceasefire, the Israeli military said politicians gave the order in part over concerns that the release of Palestinian prisoners — in swaps for Israeli hostages held by Hamas — could raise tensions in the West Bank.
The checkpoints all over the West Bank, it said, were “to ensure safe movement and expand inspections.”
“Checkpoints are a tool we use in the fight against terror, enabling civilian movement while providing a layer of screening to prevent terrorists from escaping,” said Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman.
Life disrupted
To spend rush hour at an Israeli checkpoint is to hear of the problems it has brought — Palestinian families divided, money lost, trade disrupted, sick people kept from doctors.
Ahmed Jibril said not even his position as manager of emergency services for the Palestinian Red Crescent protects him.
“We’re treated like any other private car,” he said, describing dozens of cases in which Israeli soldiers forced ambulances to wait for inspection when they were responding to emergency calls.
In one case, on Jan. 21, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported that a 46-year-old woman who had suffered a heart attack in the southern city of Hebron died while waiting to cross a checkpoint.
The Israeli military said it was not aware of that specific incident. But citing Hamas’ use of civilian infrastructure like hospitals to conceal fighters, the army acknowledged subjecting medical teams to security checks “while trying to reduce the delay as much as possible in order to mitigate harm.”
The UN humanitarian agency, or OCHA, reported that, as of last Nov. 28, Israel had 793 checkpoints and roadblocks in the West Bank, 228 more than before the war in Gaza.
The agency hasn’t updated the tally since the ceasefire, but its latest report noted a surge in “suffocating restrictions” that are “tearing communities apart and largely paralyzing daily life.”
A bubble bursts
With its upscale restaurants and yoga studios, Ramallah gained a reputation in past conflicts for being something of a well-to-do bubble where cafe-hopping residents can feel immune to the harsh realities of the occupation.
Now its residents, struck in numbingly long lines to run simple errands, feel under siege.
“All we want to do is go home,” said Mary Elia, 70, stalled with her husband for nearly two hours at the Ein Senia checkpoint north of Ramallah last week, as they made their way home to east Jerusalem from their daughter’s house. “Are we meant to never see our grandchildren?”
Suddenly, her face contorted in discomfort. She had to urinate, she said, and there were hours to go before they crossed.
A national obsession
Roll down the window at a bottlenecked checkpoint and the same soothing female voice can be heard emanating from countless car radios, reeling off every Israeli checkpoint, followed by “salik” — Arabic for open — or “mughlaq,” closed, based on the conditions of the moment.
These reports recently beat out weather broadcasts for top slot on the West Bank radio lineup.
Almost every Palestinian driver seems able to expound on the latest checkpoint operating hours, the minutiae of soldiers’ mood changes and fiercely defended opinions about the most efficient detours.
“I didn’t ask for a Ph.D. in this,” said Yasin Fityani, 30, an engineer stuck in line to leave Ramallah for work, scrolling through new checkpoint-dedicated WhatsApp groups filled with footage of soldiers installing cement barriers and fistfights erupting over someone cutting the line.
Lost time, lost money
It was the second time in as many weeks that his boss at the Jerusalem bus company called off his morning shift because he was late.
Worse still for Nidal Al-Maghribi, 34, it was too dangerous to back out of the queue of frustrated motorists waiting to pass Jaba checkpoint, which severs his east Jerusalem neighborhood from the rest of the city. Another full day’s work wasted in his car.
“What am I supposed to tell my wife?” he asked, pausing to keep his composure. “This job is how I feed my kids.”
Palestinian trucks, packed with perishable food and construction materials, are not spared the scrutiny. Soldiers often ask truckers to pull over and unload their cargo for inspection. Fruit rots. Textiles and electronics get damaged.
The delays raise prices, further choking a Palestinian economy that shrank 28 percent last year as a result of punitive Israeli policies imposed after Hamas’ attack, said Palestinian Economy Minister Mohammad Alamour. Israel’s ban on most Palestinian workers has left 30 percent of the West Bank’s workforce jobless.
“These barriers do everything except their stated purpose of providing security,” Alamour said.
“They pressure the Palestinian people and the Palestinian economy. They make people want to leave their country.”