The checkpoints and roadblocks are designed to protect the settlers as well as to prevent suicide attacks inside Israel. But settlers have nevertheless faced numerous violent attacks claiming scores of lives.

Settlers do not have to pass through permanent checkpoints of the kind illustrated above. They use a network of bypass roads designed specifically for their use. These skirt around Palestinian towns and are subject to much less stringent security checks.

Israeli civilians face a blanket ban against entering areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority.

Bypass roads are sometimes used by Palestinian traffic - mainly taxis – but only selectively. Depending on the security situation, Israeli soldiers either tolerate this or clamp down on it.

Palestinian vehicles usually leave the bypass road before they reach an army checkpoint, using unpaved agricultural roads to avoid detection.