Informing humanitarians worldwide 24/7 — a service provided by UN OCHA

oPt

The humanitarian impact of 20 years of the barrier - December 2022

Attachments

Key facts

  • In 2002, the Israeli authorities started to build a Barrier with the stated aim of preventing violent attacks by Palestinians inside Israel. Most of the Barrier’s route is located within the West Bank, rather than on the 1949 Armistice ‘Green’ Line. The area between the Green Line and the Barrier is referred to as the ‘Seam Zone’.
  • The Barrier is one element of a range of restrictions that Israel has imposed on Palestinians since 1967, which include physical obstacles, bureaucratic constraints such as permit requirements and the designation of areas as restricted or closed. The Barrier consists of concrete walls, fences, ditches, razor wire, sand paths, an electronic monitoring system, patrol roads, a buffer zone and several military checkpoints.
  • The Barrier’s total length, constructed and projected, is 713 km, more than twice the length of the Green Line. About 65 per cent of the approved route is complete.
  • Eighty-five per cent of the Barrier’s route runs inside the West Bank. If finished, as planned, it will isolate 9 per cent of the territory of the West Bank including East Jerusalem.
  • Seventy-one Israeli settlements and over 85 per cent of the settler population, are in the ‘Seam Zone’.
  • Approximately 150 Palestinian communities living in the rest of the West Bank have farmland located in the ‘Seam Zone’, forcing them to seek special permits or ‘prior coordination’ to access their crops and flocks.
  • Farmers can only reach their land through 69 designated gates which are controlled by the Israeli authorities and are typically closed. Most agricultural gates only open during the October-November olive harvest for a limited time each day.
  • Around 11,000 Palestinians living in the ‘Seam Zone’ and who hold West Bank ID cards also depend on the granting of permits or special arrangements to live in their own homes.
  • Palestinians with West Bank ID cards require special permits from the Israeli authorities to enter East Jerusalem; they may do so through four of the 14 Barrier checkpoints.
  • On 21 June 2022, ,following a series of attacks in Israel, the Israeli authorities began repairing and fortifying a 45-km stretch of the Barrier in the northern West Bank, replacing segments in that section, to prevent Palestinians entering Israel through unregulated openings.

Disclaimer

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
To learn more about OCHA's activities, please visit https://www.unocha.org/.