Israel’s security establishment decided to reopen the Gilboa Crossing to the terrorist stronghold of Jenin in northern Samaria for use by the country’s Arab citizens, the IDF confirmed on Sunday.
“The decision to open the Jalama[/Gilboa] Crossing was made with a situational assessment and at the recommendation of all the security agencies,” a military spokesperson as said.
“Security personnel are stationed at each crossing, and it is their job to check those enter and exit,” added the IDF statement.
Before Hamas launched its war against the Jewish state on Oct. 7, the Gilboa Crossing—one of the largest crossings in Judea and Samaria—facilitated the movement of thousands of workers from the Palestinian Authority, and enabled trade and shopping trips to Jenin by Arab Israelis.
While the crossing remained closed during the first months of the war, it reopened in recent weeks, leading to scores of Arab Israelis visiting the city that Palestinians refer to as the “Martyrs’ Capital” due to the many suicide bombers who came from there during the Second Intifada.
“Two weeks ago, we were amazed to find out that, in the middle of the war, the security establishment decided to reopen the gate,” Danny Atar, the head of the Gilboa Regional Council, told Ynet on Sunday.
“Thousands of Israeli Arabs immediately stood there in traffic jams. They spend the weekends in Jenin and the neighboring Palestinian villages, spending tens of millions of shekels on food, clothes, furniture, repairing cars and buying electrical appliances,” he claimed.
Atar noted that while entering Jenin, a city in Area A of Judea and Samaria under the control of the Palestinian Authority, is officially forbidden for Israeli citizens, the law is only enforced against Jews.
“This money fuels the terrorism against us, he, adding, “Since the opening of the checkpoint, the rate and intensity of shooting towards our communities has increased by hundreds of percent.”
Shootings towards the communities on Mount Gilboa were already commonplace in the months before Oct. 7 but have since increased, a resident of Kibbutz Meirav, located in northern Israel near Jenin, told JNS in February.
“We need to demand security. To demand that there won’t be people with weapons around the corner who want to kill us, to murder us. As long as they have weapons, our lives are in danger,” Oren Henig said.
Last week, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich urged immediate government action after Hamas terrorists opened fire on central Israel from northern Samaria several times over the course of a week.
“Terrorism must be eradicated everywhere, even if it means Tulkarem [in Samaria] will look like Gaza looks today,” tweeted Smotrich, who oversees civilian issues in Judea and Samaria in the Defense Ministry.
Judea and Samaria saw a dramatic rise in Palestinian terrorist attacks in 2023 compared to the previous year, with shootings reaching their highest level since the Second Intifada of 2000-2005, according to IDF data.
