{"id":4271,"date":"2026-09-16T23:19:05","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T23:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=4271"},"modified":"2026-09-16T23:19:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T23:19:05","slug":"for-checkpoint-and-settler-attack-news-palestinians-tune-into-the-radio-israel-palestine-conflict-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=4271","title":{"rendered":"For checkpoint and settler attack news, Palestinians tune into the radio | Israel-Palestine conflict News"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Palestinians in the occupied West Bank know they shouldn\u2019t ask what time their loved ones are going to make it home.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s simply no way to give an accurate answer.\u00a0What used to be a short ride from one place to another could now take hours, or it might not happen at all.<\/p>\n

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Before driving, Palestinians check dedicated WhatsApp and Telegram groups and channels where people share updates on road conditions. But this isn\u2019t typical traffic news: Instead, chats focus on which Israeli military checkpoints<\/a> are open, which roads are off limits to Palestinians and whether Israeli settlers<\/a> are attacking Palestinians as they drive their vehicles.<\/p>\n

Sometimes pins are sent to warn people driving near towns where Israeli forces are conducting raids.<\/p>\n

And if there\u2019s no time to check the groups, then there\u2019s always Basma FM. The Palestinian radio station, based in Rawabi near Ramallah, carries three traffic updates per hour.<\/p>\n

The channel started broadcasting on October 2, 2023 \u2013 just days before the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7 and the start of Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza, and what has become a pogrom against Palestinians in the West Bank.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur idea was to target young people. We wanted to offer entertainment and culture news. But five days later, we realised we couldn\u2019t,\u201d said Fatima Barqawi, Basma FM\u2019s news and traffic director.<\/p>\n

The team had originally planned traffic updates as part of their programming. \u201cWe thought we could tell parents picking up their children from school to know where there was traffic, but after the war on Gaza started, we had to shift focus,\u201d Barqawi said.<\/p>\n

Her department has seven employees who verify information with their sources and provide updates on roadblocks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings change each second. We could say there\u2019s a closed checkpoint and Israeli soldiers decide to reopen it. Or vice versa,\u201d Barqawi explained.<\/p>\n

Dangers on the roads<\/h2>\n

The issue for Palestinians driving through the West Bank isn\u2019t simply being late for appointments or held up for hours \u2013 it\u2019s that there is an inherent danger to travelling in the occupied territory.<\/p>\n

Palestinians in the West Bank drive white-plated vehicles, making them easily identifiable compared to the yellow-plated cars driven by Israeli settlers.<\/p>\n

Israeli soldiers have killed Palestinians near checkpoints after claiming they were conducting ramming attacks, and Israeli settlers often attack Palestinian cars or block them from using certain highways.<\/p>\n

These attacks are increasing as illegal Israeli settlements grow at a record pace.<\/p>\n

It is hard to miss the large infrastructure projects Israel is implementing, expanding highways to connect Israeli settlements to one another and to Israel. This ends up isolating Palestinian communities, often forcing Palestinians to use poorly paved roads or dangerous mountainous routes to avoid Israeli settlers and roadblocks.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a journey of fear and anxiety, a young Palestinian woman who did not wish to be named told Al Jazeera. \u201cI used to blast my music and drive, now I\u2019m on high alert. Always on edge.\u201d<\/p>\n

The woman recounted how Israeli soldiers assaulted her fianc\u00e9 near a checkpoint in Hebron, in the southern occupied West Bank, because they mistakenly thought he had passed without stopping. A year later, she said, a soldier pointed his rifle at her.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was shouting at me. The sun was blocking my view, and I was careful crossing the checkpoint but that wasn\u2019t enough. I saw the green beam [from the gun] and thought that was the end,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Attacks at checkpoints<\/h2>\n

Many Palestinians report being assaulted, humiliated and sometimes arrested at these checkpoints and roadblocks.<\/p>\n

Israel has long imposed movement restrictions on Palestinians, controlling the road system and Palestinians\u2019 access to the wider world. But since the war on Gaza began, these restrictions have intensified.<\/p>\n

As of December 2025, the United Nations documented 925 barriers across the occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem, a 43 percent increase over the 20-year annual average of 647, the UN\u2019s humanitarian affairs agency, OCHA, reported.<\/p>\n

Almost all of of the villages and cities in the West Bank have iron gates at their entrances, and Israeli forces close them arbitrarily. Some of the gates are only open during certain hours.<\/p>\n

A new report by the Israeli human rights group B\u2019Tselem said the restrictions are used to deliberately fragment Palestinian life, with roadblocks and military checkpoints cutting off people from their work, schools, hospitals and one another.<\/p>\n

The report, titled The Elimination Project, says there\u2019s a broad rapid and systematic Israeli assault in the West Bank that aims to dismantle the foundations of Palestinian existence, and road closures are just one of them.<\/p>\n

That is why, as Heba Erkat prepared her notes before heading into the studio for Basma FM\u2019s Wednesday afternoon bulletin, she knew the information about to be read out could change rapidly.<\/p>\n

Her colleague read the news, and then Erkat started listing updates at 61 checkpoints across the West Bank.<\/p>\n

It was a relatively good day: only 12 of the checkpoints were either closed or had long queues.<\/p>\n

But, as Erkat noted at the end of the segment, \u201cthe situation changes by the minute\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Palestinians in the occupied West Bank know they shouldn\u2019t ask what time their loved ones are going to make it home. There\u2019s simply no way to give an accurate answer.\u00a0What used to be a short ride from one place to another could now take hours, or it might not happen at all. Recommended Stories list…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-international-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t