“Erez” colony

Erez is an agricultural settlement (kibbutz) located in the southwest of occupied Palestine, approximately 1 km north of the Gaza Strip. The kibbutz was founded in 1949 and moved to its current location in 1950. In 2019, the number of settlers there was 558. The nearby Beit Hanoun checkpoint is named “Erez” after the kibbutz.

This checkpoint is located north of the Gaza Strip on the lands of the town of Beit Hanoun/Damra. It is considered one of the most heavily fortified military checkpoints and is designated for pedestrian use. It serves to transfer patients and injured individuals for treatment in Jordan, or in the occupied territories of 1948, Jerusalem, and the West Bank. Diplomats, foreign missions, journalists, Palestinian workers, merchants, and others holding permits to enter the 1948 occupied territories also pass through this checkpoint.

Palestinian resistance forces broadcast footage from inside the checkpoint corridors after storming and taking control of it during the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation on the morning of October 7, 2023.

Sources:
Due to the scarcity of Arabic sources, Hebrew sources were used: the settlement’s Hebrew website, the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, and the village of Damra from the Palestine Remembered website.