Sansana, South Hebron Hills, Thu 26.6.08, Morning

Translating - Tal E,

5:30-8:30
Following a request from the lawyer of the human rights organization, who is working these days on an appeal to the Supreme Court regarding the road blockings on route 60, we spent this shift inspecting the blockings between Sansana and ChalChul.

Sansana-Meitar – 5:30
The checkpoint is almost empty. Workers who arrive enter immediately and pass quickly. On of the workers tells us smiling "this way is very good" while quickly approaching the checkpoint.
Recommendation: We bought 10 Falafel balls right out of the oil. It was great.

Route 60
They are still working on the road, especially on the closer part to the checkpoint. We'd curiously like to know how many millions the country is spending on this part of the road.
South Samoa – The road is closed. It is informally open after the Palestinians cleared a path in between the dirt piles. The army seems to ignore it.
Samoa – Simya – same thing.
Right after the mine and close to Otniel – same thing.
Dahariya – The main entrance is blocked. Here also there's a crooked path that the Palestinians manage to go through with their vehicles. It is accompanied of course with damage to the car. Here also the army ignores it for some time.
Karameh – The Palestinians moved a few rocks and the road is open.
On the left side of the road (opposite to Karame) – open.
Left turn after Karameh (we don't know the name of the village) – open. It seems like the army opened the road because it is completely straightened and in the past there were rocks and dirt piles. Now it is all clear.
Dir Razek – blocked.
Dura el Fawar – open.
Right turn after Dura el Fawar – open. Here too it seems that the blocking was removed and so we assume it was formally done by the army.
The entrance to Hebron next to Bet Hagai – blocked.
Gilgis – blocking on both sides of the road.
Yatta (upper part next to army base) – open. Here too it looks like the opening is not formal.
Sheep Crossing – open.
Another entrance to Hebron after the Sheep J – blocked.
All of Bani Naim entrances to Route 60 are blocked – from Route 60 J and Road 356 and up to Sauch, as well as the inner road near the settlers' vineyard.
Sayuch-Hebron – closed on both sides.

Route 35 
Humanitarian CP - is closed.
Chalchul Bridge – open but the blocking before the bridge is still closed.
Sair-Chalchul – open. For the first time we find a sign to a Palestinian settlement. A salient sign that points to the turn to Sair and Chalchul.

Route 317 (on our way back):
Bani Naim – open.
Zif – open.
The next turn right after Zif (close to the army base) – open. Same place on the left side of the road – closed.
Tawani-Yatta – open.

We decided to pay a visit in Avigail. The olive orchard that we saw uprooted two years ago has not been rehabilitated. The place looks exactly like it was after the army uprooted the trees that were stolen by the settlers.
The illegal settlement (Maachaz) is not surrounded by a fence. It looks to us like the number of setters grew since our last visit. We see 5-6 manned caravans and a few cars parking beside them. A woman soldier approaches us. She wants to know why we're there. We ask her how many settlers and how many soldiers are there. She says that there are many soldiers. We don't see the. She asks us to leave since there are many warnings about possible attacks. We leave.