Yusef Kashur, 34, a taxi driver and father of six from Dura, south of Hebron, described how his work turned into a daily ordeal
I work as a taxi driver. Since the events of 7 October and the beginning of the war in Gaza, the Israeli military has installed dozens of gates on roads, controlled by soldiers who open and close them on a whim. Among the gates and checkpoints that make my daily work difficult are: the a-Dhahiriyah gate, which has been closed since 7 October, the gate the military placed at the entrance to the town of Dura, which was also closed since 7 October but opened about a month ago, the a-Nashash checkpoint in the city of Bethlehem, which closes every day at 7:00 P.M., and the Beit Sahur gate (‘Ush al-Ghurab), which also closes every day at 7:00 P.M. Since these gates were put up, my work has become a torment, because I keep having to bypass gates and drive around between them, sometimes on difficult and dangerous dirt roads, which is especially frightening at night. These drives are exhausting, take a very long time, and the fuel costs so much that I don't make enough to cover our household needs.
Since these gates were put up, my work has become a torment, because I keep having to bypass gates and drive around between them, sometimes on difficult and dangerous dirt roads, which is especially frightening at night. These drives are exhausting, take a very long time, and the fuel costs so much that I don't make enough to cover our household needs.
So I've stopped accepting fares outside the area and make do with local rides. They aren’t easy either, because I have to bypass closures and go through the various entrances to communities to reach the drop-off points. Sometimes I still have to accept fares outside the area because I feel bad turning down regular customers and friends. In such cases, it takes me an entire day to drive people to Bethlehem, for example, or to Jericho, when under normal circumstances, without the checkpoints and gates that delay us, the drive would have taken only two hours.
Yesterday, at around 8:20 P.M., I was driving several workers from the town of a-Dhahiriyah in the South Hebron Hills to the city of Bethlehem, when we discovered to our surprise that the military had closed all the entrances to Hebron. They claimed there was a suspicion that armed men had entered Carmei Tzur, a story that turned out to be baseless. I tried to drive through the city of Dura, but the road from there was closed. I switched to the road that goes through the Farsh al-Hawa area, but it was closed too, so I tried to drive via the town of Tarqumya, but that road was also closed. I switched routes again and drove to the town of Surif, from there to the town of Beit Ummar and then to al-‘Arrub Refugee Camp. From there, I drove along a bumpy dirt road to the town of Beit Fajjar, then to the village of Jurat a-Shama’ah, until I reached Route 60 and managed to get to the city of Bethlehem. By then, it was already around 2:00 A.M. I took the same way back, and by the time I reached the entrance to the Farsh al-Hawa checkpoint, there was already a line of dozens of cars. The checkpoint opened at around 4:00 A.M., and only then could I continue driving from Hebron to my home in Dura. I got home exhausted and worn out.
I used to drive two or three dialysis patients twice a week from al-Fawwar Refugee Camp to the hospital in Dura for treatment. The gate at the entrance to al-Fawwar Camp used to open at 10:00 A.M. and close at 2:00 P.M., but the dialysis patients would finish treatment only at around 3:30 P.M. This forced me to drive via the villages of Karma and a-Rihiya to get to their homes in al-Fawwar Camp, a route that took nearly an hour, when the drive only takes 10 minutes with the gate open. This long drive, after hours of painful dialysis.
Until about a month ago, I used to drive two or three dialysis patients twice a week from al-Fawwar Refugee Camp to the hospital in Dura for treatment. The gate at the entrance to al-Fawwar Camp used to open at 10:00 A.M. and close at 2:00 P.M., but the dialysis patients would finish treatment only at around 3:30 P.M. This forced me to drive via the villages of Karma and a-Rihiya to get to their homes in al-Fawwar Camp, a route that took nearly an hour, when the drive only takes 10 minutes with the gate open. This long drive, after hours of painful dialysis, took a toll on their health. About a month ago, I stopped driving these patients and handed the fare over to a friend of mine who also works as a driver. I also stopped driving a cancer patient I used to take from the town of Beit ‘Awwa south of Hebron for treatment at the Arab Society (al-Jam’iya al-‘Arabiyah) in the city of Bethlehem, because of the delays and gates along the way.
- Testimony given to B’Tselem field researcher Manal al-Ja’bari on 12 February 2026