Who Will Save Tulkarm?

I write this article while I am in Tulkarm Governorate, moving between its villages and the city at its center, living daily a reality that can no longer endure gentle descriptions. What is happening here is not an ordinary economic crisis, but rather a comprehensive strangulation process, consciously practiced, targeting the city, its residents, and its infrastructure, gradually driving it towards complete exhaustion. The question that forces itself strongly is: who will save Tulkarm from this deliberate death?

For a year now, the governorate has been in a state of almost permanent lockdown. Military checkpoints surround it, and the gates open and close according to a fluctuating security mood, turning daily movement into an adventure. The Shufa gate, which is the main artery linking Tulkarm with the Palestinians from within, closes repeatedly, cutting off the flow of customers and paralyzing commercial movement. Each time the gate closes, the city turns into an isolated island, and the markets incur direct losses estimated in thousands of shekels daily.

According to official data, about 83% of the economic establishments in Tulkarm Governorate have temporarily or permanently ceased operations due to incursions, siege, and repeated closures. This figure practically means that the market can no longer perform its basic function and that thousands of families have lost or are on the verge of losing their only source of income. During my stroll through the old market and Paris Street, the picture is clear: closed doors, timid movement, and merchants sitting in front of their shops waiting for a customer that may never come.

In the Tulkarm and Nur Shams camps, the lockdown turns into direct destruction. According to local statistics, the occupation army has destroyed and burned nearly 300 commercial shops since the beginning of "Operation Iron Wall." Here we are not talking about collateral damage, but about direct targeting of the grassroots economy. These shops formed the backbone of the livelihood of entire families, and their destruction means pushing hundreds of families into forced poverty.

During my time in the vicinity of the camps, the effects of destruction are evident: shattered streets, destroyed water networks, and exposed electrical wires. The destruction of infrastructure is no longer an exception but a repeated policy that disrupts daily life and imposes additional costs on citizens and municipalities, at a time when the governorate is already suffering from resource scarcity.

The economic reality in Tulkarm today is directly linked to this closure. The city relies heavily on the movement of workers and trade with the inside, and with the prevention of workers from reaching their jobs and the restriction of shoppers' movement, liquidity has dropped to dangerous levels. People are buying only the essentials, while entire sectors, especially restaurants and shops linked to external movement, have effectively ceased operations.

The dangerous aspect of this scene is that the lockdown does not only hit the economy but also threatens the social fabric. Unemployment is widening, psychological pressures are escalating, and a general state of anxiety has become part of daily life. With every visit, I hear the same question: how long? And how can we endure in a city that is repeatedly closed and destroyed?

Rescue here is not a slogan but an urgent necessity. Firstly, there needs to be a break in the silence regarding what the governorate is exposed to in terms of systematic closure and destruction. Tulkarm is being treated today as an economically and structurally disaster-stricken area, not as a city going through a temporary crisis. Continuing this reality means more poverty and more silent economic displacement.

I write these words while I am in the heart of the governorate, and I see a city resisting with willpower, not resources. Tulkarm does not seek privileges, but its natural right to movement and life. Unless this imposed strangulation is lifted, the question will no longer be: who will save Tulkarm? Instead, it will be: how long does the city need before it completely collapses?