Mounting Israeli Checkpoints and Movement Restrictions Stifle Palestinian Commerce Across the West Bank

An expanding network of Israeli military barriers, security gates, and checkpoints across the occupied West Bank is inflicting severe damage on the Palestinian economy. The widespread movement restrictions have paralyzed commercial supply lines, isolated major municipal centers, and placed an unsustainable financial strain on local producers and business owners attempting to transport basic goods.

In the village of Rujeib, located southeast of Nablus, the operational crisis facing the Al-Kamel Dairy Factory illustrates the broader distress felt throughout the territory’s commercial sector. Established in 2022, the enterprise has seen its distribution capacities crippled as routine shipments of raw milk and finished goods encounter prolonged standoffs at Israeli military roadblocks.

The logistical deadlock has left two of the company’s primary transport trucks indefinitely parked on the factory grounds. Depressed consumer demand, coupled with unpredictable passage through regional corridors, has fundamentally altered daily operations, leaving perishable items vulnerable to destruction before reaching retail shelves.

This infrastructure of closures intensified markedly following the eruption of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023. The military measures, which Israeli authorities maintain to reinforce control over the territory and safeguard Israeli settlements that violate international law, have expanded alongside a documented surge in settler attacks against Palestinian rural communities and towns.

Data compiled by the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission reveals the staggering scale of the physical fragmentation. There are currently approximately 925 military gates and checkpoints distributed throughout the West Bank, with 147 of these barriers concentrated within the Nablus governorate alone, which serves as the primary commercial hub for local producers like Al-Kamel.

The proliferation of these barriers has triggered a drastic contraction in commercial logistics, contributing to a decline of more than 50 percent in West Bank transport traffic since late 2023. As routes become impassable or subject to arbitrary closures, the expense of moving raw materials and finished products has surged exponentially.

For enterprises operating on thin profit margins, the logistical paralysis has translated directly into operational downsizing. Al-Kamel has recorded a 30 to 40 percent drop in gross sales, a contraction that ultimately forced management to lay off at least 12 employees to keep the business solvent under mounting overheads.

Company representative Dweikat noted that structural hurdles have defined the factory’s operating environment since its inception, with military checkpoints surrounding Nablus proving to be the most damaging barrier. Dweikat stated that the urban center is under an effective encirclement, with nearly every transit corridor controlled by permanent or temporary military infrastructure that artificially inflates shipping overheads and unit production costs.

Compounding the logistical hurdles is a broader macroeconomic downturn across the occupied territory. The widespread revocation of Israeli employment permits for West Bank laborers following the start of hostilities in Gaza, alongside widespread public-sector wage reductions, has eroded purchasing power and deepened the ongoing domestic recession.

Consequently, local manufacturers find themselves unable to adjust their wholesale prices to offset rising fuel and logistical expenses. As Dweikat observed, impoverished consumers cannot absorb higher retail prices in the midst of an aggressive economic contraction, forcing manufacturers to absorb the losses directly.

The nature of the dairy industry renders the situation uniquely precarious, given that untreated milk requires strict temperature-controlled transport to prevent contamination. Extended idling at military installations routinely causes shipments to spoil, forcing the company to write off substantial quantities of stock and abandon key distribution routes to clients located outside the municipal boundaries of Nablus.

At the Awarta military barrier, situated roughly two kilometers from the Al-Kamel processing plant, delivery vehicles frequently face transit queues lasting up to four hours. The cumulative delays have resulted in the direct loss of 10 tonnes of milk, prompting dispatchers to cancel midday delivery attempts entirely to protect cargo from spoilage and safeguard drivers amid deteriorating regional security.

The microeconomic losses observed in Nablus are reinforced by empirical findings from the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS). In a comprehensive study published in March 2025 tracking 14 active checkpoints, researchers recorded typical delays ranging from 15 to 50 minutes, with outward transit from Nablus governorate facing average extensions of 42 minutes—representing a 77.9 percent surge above baseline travel durations.

According to the institute’s estimates, the resulting delays drain 191,146 productive labor hours from the Palestinian workforce each day. In monetary terms, this lost labor capacity inflicts an estimated daily loss of 2.8 million shekels ($764,600) on the Palestinian economy, which compounds to roughly 62.2 million shekels ($16.8 million) every month.

Furthermore, commercial drivers navigating around sudden roadblocks are routinely forced onto circuitous rural bypasses, generating an estimated 71,000 shekels ($19,203) in unnecessary daily fuel expenditures across the West Bank.

The compounding closures have effectively hollowed out local urban centers that previously served as regional commercial crossroads. In Nablus, local merchants such as spice vendor Mansour Aliwi report that the historic trading city has been reduced to an isolated shadow of its former self, warning that persistent checkpoint closures continue to deepen the economic crisis with each passing month.