Nablus Dairy Firm Cuts Sales 30-40% as West Bank Checkpoints Multiply, Study Finds $16.8M Monthly Toll
A milk producer near Nablus has laid off a dozen workers and dumped 10 tonnes of spoiled product as Israeli military checkpoints choke movement across the occupied West Bank.
Source: Al Jazeera English · published September 10, 2026
Two distribution trucks sit idle in the yard of Al-Kamel Dairy Factory in Rujeib village, southeast of Nablus. They are not broken. There is simply nowhere left to send them.
The company, founded in 2022, built its business on raw milk moving quickly through refrigerated trucks to customers across the Nablus governorate. That business has collapsed by 30 to 40 percent in sales, and the factory has laid off at least 12 workers, according to its owner, Dweikat, who spoke to Al Jazeera. The cause, he said, is the checkpoint system ringing the city.
"There is a severe siege on the city of Nablus, as you can barely find an entrance to the city of Nablus without a permanent or semi-permanent checkpoint," Dweikat told Al Jazeera.
At the Awarta checkpoint, roughly two kilometers from the factory, milk trucks have waited up to four hours to pass. Ten tonnes of Al-Kamel's milk have gone to waste in transit delays, Dweikat said. Trucks now take two to three hours just to exit Nablus before facing further waits at surrounding gates. Dweikat said the company has been forced to abandon customers outside the city entirely, and that worsening security conditions sometimes force drivers to turn back before nightfall rather than risk being caught on the road.
The numbers behind the squeeze
According to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CRRC), roughly 925 checkpoints and military gates are spread across the occupied West Bank, with 147 in the Nablus governorate alone, Al-Kamel's core market. Transport movement across the territory has dropped more than 50 percent since Israel's war on Gaza began in October 2023, Al Jazeera reported.
A March 2025 study by the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS), which monitored 14 checkpoints, found average delays of 42 minutes for trips outside Nablus governorate, a 77.9 percent increase over normal travel time. The institute estimated 191,146 working hours are lost daily to these delays, at a cost of roughly 2.8 million shekels ($764,600) per day, or $16.8 million a month, to the Palestinian economy. Drivers detouring around closed checkpoints incur an additional $19,203 in fuel costs daily, per the same study.
The CRRC also states Israel's separation barrier has isolated more than 295 square kilometers of Palestinian land, with planned expansion set to isolate 560 square kilometers total.
The war-era suspension of work permits for Palestinians employed in Israel, combined with falling wages, has compounded the strain. Nablus spice merchant Mansour Aliwi described his city to Al Jazeera as a ghost town, saying the crisis deepens month by month as Israel keeps crossings closed and bars entry to Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Further Documentation
Sources & Documentation
- Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank are choking the Palestinian economy — Al Jazeera English
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