Eyal Crossing, Habla, Mon 20.9.10, Morning

.   06:40   - Habla;  the gate is closed, and there are no soldiers. 06:48The soldiers arrive.  This time the Military Police arrived with them although, of course, late.  At least 4 gates must be opened in order to operate the checkpoint.  Since the 4th one is one the side of Habla, a lot of people are waiting there, sitting in the field or the shed. When the 3rd gate is opened, they begin to gather next to the 4th gate. 

06:57 The 4th gate is open (instead of at 06:45), and the passage begins.  During the first 10 minutes, 20 people go through.  The soldiers allow groups of 5 to wait in front of the turnstile, ready to enter for inspection as soon as the previous quintuplet goes out. 

 07:05  Two buses full of children on their way to school arrive.  One is big and the other is a midi-bus.  Teachers, children over 16 and the driver get off and the soldier starts to inspect their documents.  All of them return, except for the driver who needs to wait until they permit him to enter and be inspected by an officer.  All of this in spite of the fact that he is known and goes through daily for his work.  He says that  every day there is a different method and he is at the mercy of the soldiers, without clear guidelines.  At 07:13, the female officer decides that he can't go through - did you hear this?  We are all ready to call up the DCO when the checkpoint commander intervenes and everyone goes through.  It is 07:15. 

07:35 Jayyus North The gate is open and operating.  One man is still waiting in line.  According to our Ecumenical friends, who were already here before the opening, the gate did open on time today.  Much fewer people pass through here recently, as they prefer to go via Falamiya.  Early this morning, 89 people went through at Falamiya.  This seems to be because they prefer to take advantage of the morning hours for work, which they can't do here, as the gate only opens at 07:30.  So, they prefer to go through the gate, which is quite far from their homes and fields, and have a longer work day. Now, there is some additional activity.  Roni S was asked by someone from "Psycho-Activ" to try and help a family through who have an autistic child and they are all going to Rosh Pina for 3 weeks, for special treatment there which will prepare them for taking care of their child. From past experience, they knew they would be delayed at the checkpoint for a long time (about an hour), since the child in question was not willing to go through the x-ray machine and there were problems.  We spoke about this with our Ecumenical friends and asked them if they had someone at Eyal.  The answer was negative, but she immediately volunteered to come with us to Qalqilya on the city side, where things will certainly be straightened out.

 08:30   -  Eyal checkpointAbout 15 people are waiting in the courtyard in front of the DCO and, when the office door opens at 08:50, everyone is immediately sucked in. 

09:37

There is a report from the Ecumenical friends, that the family has entered the checkpoint.  The inspectors did indeed detain them at the passage.  When, at 10:00, we understood that they were detained again, apparently at the machine which the poor kid was afraid of and would not agree to pass through, we called the DCO, which helped and, a few minutes later, all of them came through:  the father who is handicapped, the mother and their 4 children and the caretaker who travels with them for the training.  Their passage took 30 minutes, with help.