West Bank & Jerusalem
Israeli court orders longer hours at Palestinians' only exit crossing
Graphic: Times of Palestine
Original Reporting
An Israeli court has ordered the Israel Airports Authority to report by 1 November on what it is doing to hire staff and lengthen the working day at the Allenby/King Hussein crossing, the only route out of the occupied West Bank for Palestinians, according to the Palestinian outlets Raya and Sawaleif, which reported that the authority was also told to hand the court updated figures on operating hours and on the movement of travellers and goods.
The immediate effect is 90 extra minutes on two days a week. From Thursday 30 July, the same reports said, the crossing operates in both directions from 8am to 6.30pm on Sundays and Thursdays, and from 8am to 5pm on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
The petition was brought by the coordinating council of Palestinian private-sector institutions.
The Israeli site Srugim reported that the private-sector bodies filed an administrative petition in the Jerusalem District Court against the Airports Authority and the Civil Administration, demanding the terminal run around the clock or at least return to its earlier timetable, and grounding the claim in commitments made in the 1995 interim agreements.
Haaretz described the case as a High Court petition filed in March; Sada News reported it as a Supreme Court order.
The outlets do not agree on the forum, and no final judgment has been reported — the businessman Emad Nassar told the Palestinian site Bokra that the court neither dismissed the petition nor accepted the argument that it lacked jurisdiction, and that Palestinian institutions would continue litigating.
Allenby carries the great majority of Palestinian travel abroad. Palestinian police data cited by Haaretz put the number of travellers through the crossing in 2025 at about 1.5 million. The economist Samir Hulileh, quoted by Al-Quds, said the significance of the ruling lay in placing the Airports Authority under judicial supervision until 1 November on behalf of roughly 1.5 million Palestinians who cross each year.
Before the change, Haaretz reported in July that Israeli-set rules allowed passengers to enter from the Jordanian side for only five and a half hours a day, with the terminal closed on Saturdays. Israel Hayom reported in February that the terminal ran Sunday to Thursday from 8am to 5pm and Fridays from 8am to 3pm, and that only Palestinian residents and tourists may use it, not Israeli citizens.
Haaretz reported that the shortened hours produced a trade in queue places, and that the World Bank has repeatedly cited the crossing's limited hours as a drag on Palestinian economic development.
Payment has long bought speed at the bridge: +972 Magazine reported that travellers are sorted into three lines — ordinary Palestinian passengers, VIP passengers paying an extra $150, and diplomats and international staff. Commercial operators still sell fast-track passage; one Israeli-based service advertises it at $219 per person.
The Airports Authority told Haaretz that its security deployment had been doubled on instruction after two attacks at the crossing in which five Israelis were killed, that security staff were being called up for extended reserve duty, and that expanding hours was therefore not possible at this stage.
It said it operates Allenby in line with the hours set in the peace treaty with Jordan and that the matter is raised with the Jordanians routinely. Haaretz noted the statement made no mention of the Oslo accords, which envisaged continuous operation.
In court, according to Sada News, the authority's lawyer Ron Tzin said there was no "conspiracy" behind the limited hours, only security directives and the number of available guards; the petitioners' lawyer, Shlomo Menahem, argued Palestinians are a captive consumer base with no alternative crossing, and the judges did not dispute that a constitutional right was engaged.
Longer hours have existed before and been withdrawn. The Times of Israel reported that Israel began running Allenby nearly full-time in 2023 after more than a year of US pressure; Haaretz reported the 24-hour schedule held for several months in 2023, Sunday to Thursday.
After the shooting attack at the crossing on 18 September 2025, the Times of Israel reported Israel closed it until further notice and did not answer when asked whether the closure was tied to states recognising Palestine.
Al Jazeera reported on 9 December that Israel reopened the bridge to goods after about three months, with Israeli Army Radio quoting a military source who said the step responded to American pressure.
The Jordanian side has its own queue. CNN Arabic reported in July 2025 that Jordan introduced new measures against brokers reselling electronic booking slots, and that travellers were stranded in Amman for days when bookings ran out.
Palestinians have had no airport of their own since 2001. Gaza International Airport opened in November 1998; Haaretz reported that Israel shut it after the second intifada began and that army bulldozers destroyed the runway a year later.
Ynet and Haaretz have reported that West Bank and Gaza Palestinians must obtain a hard-to-get permit to use Ben Gurion, approved, if at all, shortly before takeoff.
A 2022 pilot routed some West Bank travellers through Ramon airport under COGAT, Shin Bet and police coordination, and a later pilot, reported by Ynet and The New Arab, opened Ben Gurion to West Bank residents holding US citizenship as a condition of Israel's entry to the American visa waiver programme.
For Gaza, exit is narrower still. Gisha reported that Israeli forces destroyed the Palestinian side of Rafah in the May 2024 invasion and the crossing stayed shut except for six weeks in early 2025, reopening on 2 February 2026.
The EU border mission counted more than 7,000 crossings from that date to 18 June: 3,671 people out, including 1,274 patients, and 3,397 in, under a reported cap of 50 patients and two companions each per day.
Whether the Airports Authority recruits the staff the court asked about, and what it reports on 1 November, is not yet known.
