The Security Sector Legislation of the Palestinian National Authority

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - January 22, 2006 - Back to Resources Page [1]

This report reviews the obstacles that are part of the system of internal closure within the West Bank as of 13 January 2006 and compares them with the situation in August 2005.

The closure system is a primary cause of poverty and the humanitarian crisis in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and restricts Palestinian access to health and education services, employment, markets and social and religious networks. The types of obstacles include permanent and partially manned checkpoints, roadblocks (consisting of rows of 1-metre concrete blocks), metal gates, earth mounds, earth walls (a long series of earth mounds), trenches, road barriers and permit restrictions. The purpose of these obstacles, as the Israeli Government states, is to protect Israeli citizens from Palestinian militant attacks that have killed around 1000 Israelis since September 2000. OCHA field staff collects the exact location of each closure with a Global Positioning System (GPS). The information is then integrated into a Geographic Information System (GIS) and used to map each obstacle.

2 Main Findings
2.1 The West Bank closure system comprises 471 physical obstacles placed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on roads to control and restrict Palestinian vehicle traffic, compared to 376 physical obstacles, reported in OCHA’s August 2005 update – an increase of 95 closure obstacles or a 25% increase.
2.2 The number of manned checkpoints remained the same during the five-month period – with 50
permanently-manned and eight partially-manned checkpoints around the West Bank. The increase has occurred in unmanned physical obstacles.

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Attachment	Size
OCHAoPt_ClosureAnalysis0106_En.pdf [2]	1.55 MB

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - January 22, 2006 - Back to Resources Page [1]