Israeli checkpoint A Israel Defense Forces checkpoint , usually called an Israeli checkpoint ( , " machsom " , , " hajez " ) , is a barrier erected by the Israel Defense Forces with the stated aim of enhancing the security of Israel and Israeli settlement s and preventing those who wish to do harm from crossing . Most of the checkpoints in the West Bank are located throughout the West Bank . Since the 1990s , and especially since the violence associated with the Second Intifada , Israel has created hundreds of permanent roadblocks and checkpoints staffed by Israeli Military or border police . However , according to the IDF , in the central region covering the West Bank areas of Judea and Samaria , there are only 12 checkpoints . In September 2011 , the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ( OCHA ) said there were 522 roadblocks and checkpoints obstructing Palestinian movement in the West Bank , up from 503 in July 2010 . That number does not include the temporary checkpoints known as " flying checkpoints , " of which there were 495 on average per month in the West Bank in 2011 , up from 351 on average per month in the previous two years . IDF checkpoints may be staffed by the Israeli Military Police , the Israel Border Police , or other soldiers . In July 2013 , the Israel Defense Forces is reportedly preparing to remove checkpoints within the West Bank as part of a goodwill gesture ahead of the anticipated peace talks between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli Government . IDF viewpoint . The IDF has stated that during 2008 , it has removed the crossing joins , 140 roadblocks and eight central checkpoints , in an effort to improve freedom of movement for the civilian Palestinian population . As of December 2010 , Israeli authorities report that 27 out of 41 manned checkpoints , and more than 200 unmanned roadblocks - more than a third of the total roadblocks - have been removed . According to the IDF , a Palestinian civilian in the West Bank can travel from the northern city of Jenin to Bethlehem , just south of Jerusalem , without encountering a single military checkpoint . According to program director Col . Triber Bezalel , the IDF employs humanitarian officers at various checkpoints , which are responsible to make life easier for those who cross the borders and aid the elderly and sick . Criticism . Many Palestinian residents of the West Bank , claim that despite the checkpoints ' intended use , in practice they violate Palestinians ' rights to transportation and other human rights . Palestinian complaints of abuse and humiliation are common : Israel Defense Forces ' Judge Advocate General , Maj . Gen . Dr . Menachem Finkelstein , states that " there were many — too many — complaints that soldiers manning checkpoints abuse and humiliate Palestinians and that the large number of complaints ' lit a red light ' for him " . Hundreds of Israeli women have monitored the checkpoints as part of Machsom ( Checkpoint ) Watch . The organization circulated daily reports on the checkpoints and published a book of testimonies that co - founder and author Yehudit Kirstein - Keshet says demonstrates " Israel ' s imprisonment of an entire population in a web of closures and checkpoints . " Kirstein - Keshet also reports , " We Watchers … have witnessed the daily humiliation and abuse , the despair and impotence of Palestinians at checkpoints . " The United Nations , in its February 2009 Humanitarian Monitor report , has stated that it is becoming " apparent " that the checkpoint and obstacles , which Israeli authorities justified from the beginning of the second Intifada ( September 2000 ) as a temporary military response to violent confrontations and attacks on Israeli civilians , is evolving into " a more permanent system of control " that is steadily reducing the space available for Palestinian growth and movement for the benefit of the increasing Israeli settler population . Checkpoints and Medical Care . In March 2002 , an explosive device was found in a Palestine Red Crescent Society ( PRCS ) ambulance . The Red Crescent expressed shock at the incident , and began an internal investigation . On January 11 , 2004 , a PRCS ambulance not carrying patients was stopped and searched at a flying checkpoint near the village of Jit . The ambulance was escorted by military jeep to the Qadomin bus station where after 10 minutes the ambulance crew got their IDs back and were allowed to continue working . In another case , on the same day , an ambulance transporting a diabetic patient to the hospital in Tulkarm was stopped , searched , and allowed to proceed after the companion of the patient was arrested . In 2008 , an Israeli soldier in command of a checkpoint outside Nablus was relieved from duty and imprisoned for two weeks after he refused to allow a Palestinian woman in labour to pass through .