| – Filastin | |
| Capital city | Ramallah |
| Surface | |
| Population | 4,817,000; |
| Road network length | 5,000 km |
| Length of highway network | 0 km |
| First highway | ? |
| Motorway name | ? |
| Traffic drives | Right |
| License plate code | PS |
The Palestinian Territories, also called Palestine or the Palestinian Authority is a partially recognized state in western Asia, consisting of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The claimed capital is Jerusalem, the actual capital is Ramallah.
The Palestinian territories include the West Bank, or West Bank, which measures 130 kilometers north-south and 60 kilometers east-west and the Gaza Strip, which measures 40 by 15 kilometers. The West Bank borders Israel to the west and Jordan to the east. The Gaza Strip borders Israel to the east and Egypt to the south, and is located on the Mediterranean Sea. The West Bank is hilly in the west and central and desert-like in the east. The Gaza Strip is flat and urbanized. Gaza City is the largest city; Jerusalem is partly located in the Palestinian territories. Palestine is recognized by most countries in Africa and Asia, but not by most countries in Europe, the Americas.
After World War I, Palestine was a British mandate until 1948, which also included Transjordan. In 1947, the United Nations divided the area into Arab and Israeli territory. A war followed in 1948 and 1949, after which the west bank was occupied by Jordan, the Gaza Strip by Egypt and the state of Israel was created. In the Six Day War of 1967, Israel conquered the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Arab-Israeli conflict continued after this, with Israel transferring some control of the Palestinian territories to the Palestinian Authority. East Jerusalem, Israeli towns and villages in the West Bank and the border area with Jordan are still under Israel’s control. The Gaza Strip is under Hamas control.
Road Network
Most of the road network in the Palestinian territories was built by Israel or the United Kingdom, and Israel still controls most major roads. There are two Israeli highways running through Palestinian territory according to the 1949 borders, namely Route 1, the highway from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and Route 404, the highway from Jerusalem to Ramallah. In addition, there are a number of expressways in the west bank such as Route 1 from Jerusalem to Jericho, Route 5 which runs to the Israeli city of Ariel and Route 443 west of Ramallah. The Israeli highway Route 6runs parallel to the West Bank, but remains within Israeli territory according to the 1949 borders. The West Bank’s road network is highly integrated with Israel’s. It is part of the Israeli road network from a numbering point of view. A partition has been built along part of the 1949 borders, partly as a wall and partly as a fence, making traffic between the Palestinian territories and Israel more difficult.
Most roads in the Palestinian Territories are single carriageways, sometimes forming bypasses, such as Hebron’s Eastern Bypass. Route 90 is the easternmost north-south route and also forms a bypass of Jericho. The main border crossing point with Jordan is the Allenby Bridge east of Jericho, which forms the transit route to Amman. The border crossings are controlled by Israel. The route along the Dead Sea has spectacular scenery, and like most roads in the east of the West Bank, it runs through desert landscape. The environment in the western Palestinian territories is more temperate and consists of lightly vegetated hills.
The road network of the Gaza Strip is less developed and technically does not belong to the Israeli road network. Israel has no control in this area. There are four major border crossings into the Gaza Strip from Israel and one major border crossing into Egypt. This border is often closed to private traffic. As the Gaza Strip is highly urbanized, the roads here mainly consist of urban roads, which are often in poor condition. The main road is from Gaza via Khan Yunis to Rafah. Conflicts with Israel have often damaged infrastructure.
Road numbering
The road numbering in the West Bank is part of the Israeli road numbering, in the Gaza Strip it is not. There is no road numbering here.
Signage
Little is known about signage in the Palestinian territories. It can be assumed that the major roads in the areas constructed by Israel have trilingual Israeli signage, in Hebrew, English and Arabic.
