Around 4,000 Palestinian workers from Hebron face an arduous journey every day as they try to cross into Israel via the Tarqumiya checkpoint.
The luckiest workers can make it through the airport-like security inspection in a few hours, while some return home after hours of waiting, and others decide to spend the night in the open air near the checkpoint so they can be first to cross over in the morning.
‘This is an Israeli policy aimed at creating chaos and confusion amongst the workers, who sometimes end up going to hospital to treat bruises and fractures or asphyxia resulting from the incredibly heavy jam and pell-mell at the crossing every morning,’ one worker said.
Hussein Amir Abu Zuneid said that he leaves his home in Dura, south of Hebron, at 2.00am to arrive at Tarqumiya crossing to ‘prepare for the torturous and humiliating journey inside the terminal, which opens its gates at 4.00am’.
He arrives at the crossing, begins to take off his shoes, belt and other items for the metal detector, and then waits as Israeli forces scrutinise his ID and work permit.
These procedures can take hours, according to Abu Zuneid, who says workers who arrive at the Palestinian side of the terminal at 2.00am often reach the Israeli side at around 8.00am ‘feeling they are reborn’.
‘We leave the terminal after waiting long hours and go to our work and source of living through which we barely manage to provide the basic needs of our families.
‘No matter how hard the work is, it is still much easier than the humiliation we experience as we pass through Tarqumiya terminal.’
The former mayor of Nuba, a village in the Hebron district, Mahmoud Shrouf, works at the crossing to help keep order.
‘The terminal starts to be crowded at the early dawn hours because workers start to flood in, but the Israelis do not allow them to pass before 8.00am. Thus, the workers experience disastrous conditions unfit for any respectable creature on earth,’ Shrouf said.
He continued: ‘The majority of workers fall asleep at the crossing because they leave their homes so early, with many lying down on a piece of cardboard inside the terminal to get some sleep before Israel opens the gates.
Most of the time only one Israeli officer is inspecting the workers’ documentation, creating huge delays.
After identification checks, workers are then taken to a small room to have their pictures taken.
‘About 50 workers are held in a small room, which barely has enough space for 20 people, for at least an hour for taking photos,’ Shrouf added.
Kayid Brush said that he had been waiting at the crossing since 3.00am, but as the pushing and shoving started he fell on the ground and was evacuated to hospital, and then home.
‘After that incident, I swore I would never go back to Tarqumiya terminal seeking to go to work. I prefer my dignity to providing food for my family.’
Meanwhile, Israel is gearing up for a deterioration in the regional situation, with a growing number of new threats facing Israel, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday.
Netanyahu made the comments as he watched an exercise simulating the response to a chemical attack on a residential neighbourhood in Jerusalem as part of an annual civil defence drill.
His remarks came after several ministers raised the alarm over the planned delivery of S-300 Russian anti-aircraft missiles to Syria, where the Syrian government have been fighting against foreign-backed terrorists who desperately want to overthrow it.
‘These things we are seeing here are meant to protect Israel from an accumulation of new threats.
‘These threats are piling up around us,’ he said.
Israel, he added, was working with ‘prudence and great responsibility’ but was gearing up for the regional situation to get worse.
‘We are anticipating a deterioration,’ Netanyahu said, without elaborating.
Earlier, Netanyahu had ordered his cabinet to stay silent on the issue of S300 Russian missile deliveries to Syria a day after two senior ministers criticised the Russian government and warned that Israel would not sit quietly if these missiles were delivered.
Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon had on Tuesday warned that Israel would ‘know what to do’ if Russia delivered anti-aircraft missiles to the Assad government.
He said at the time: ‘The deliveries have not taken place, and I hope they do not. But if, by misfortune, they arrive in Syria, we will know what to do.’
Israel has already launched several air raids inside Syria this year.
Intelligence and Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz also confirmed Israel would ‘react to any threat’.
The Russian government on Tuesday defended its arms shipments to Damascus, some of which have now been received by the Syrian army.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the S-300 missiles were a ‘stabilising factor’ which could act as a deterrent against foreign intervention, as fears grow that the Syrian conflict could spill over into neighbouring countries.
• Israeli police detained 29 Palestinians in raids across East Jerusalem early on Thursday morning, local officials said.
Israeli troops clashed with Palestinians in Abu Dis and Eizariya towns during arrest raids on the towns.
They fired tear gas, sound grenades and rubber-coated bullets at residents, Eizariya council spokesman Osama Jaber told reporters.
Israeli forces detained 13 Palestinians in raids on homes in Eizariya, Jaber said.
He identified those detained as Fatah official Mohammad Matar, Sami Abu Ghalyeh, Khaled Khalaf, Subhi Khalaf, Alaa al-Yasini, Jawad al-Yasini, Ammar al-Imwasi, Mohammad al-Mkahal, Nidal al-Asmar, Haroun Abu Romi, Nasser al-Asmar, Omar al-Nawafleh and Hazim Odwan.
Jaber said police entered the homes of Ahmad Basseh, Hamzeh Abu Zyad, and Gamil Abu Zyad and ordered them to turn themselves in for interrogation in the next 24 hours, threatening to detain their sons.
Forces also raided Mayor Sufian Basseh’s home and ransacked it, Jaber added.
In Abu Dis, police detained Abdullah Abu Hilal, Mahmud Erikat, Ali Qablawi, and Hamzeh Ayad, Jaber said. They ransacked the homes of Mohammad Nawafleh and Yousef Nawafleh.
In response to the raid, locals threw a home-made explosive device at Israeli forces stationed behind Israel’s apartheid wall, Jaber said.
Twelve Palestinian youths were arrested from their homes in the al-Sadiyeh neighbourhood of Jerusalem’s Old City.
Police broke the doors of several homes in the raids and stayed in the area until 5.00am.
The police arrested 13-year-old Issa Mteb, Aboud al-Jabari, 16, Muhanad Eid, 17, Abdullah Abu Diab 18, Hamoudeh al-Baytouni, 19, Mohammad Halawani, 19, Alaa Makieh,19, Maher al-Baytouni, 20, Mahmud al-Khatib, 20, Mohammad Ghousheh, 21, Anas Afghani, 21, and Mahmud al-Tiryaki.
