Qalandiya

5:10  We parked on the side of Atarot and entered through the checkpoint ( quite easily).

When we arrived we were told that line no. 1 was not moving forward.  We made a sign to a female soldier who started operating the check post.  

5:15  When lanes 4 and 5 opened the situation in the waiting area improved. Most of the time, the lines were very short. Sometimes there were no people waiting outside the fenced off areas.

We checked how long it takes when everything works smoothly like that. We measured between 25 to 30 minutes.

6:05  An officer,  whom we had not seen in the past, arrived to open the humanitarian gate (about time!), but he did not open. Since there were not many people in the waiting area women, pupils and people with permits did not line up at the humanitarian gate. We directed the women and the old people waiting in the regular lines to the humanitarian gate. It opened.

6:10  Many children arrived to pass through the humanitarian gate. Every few minutes a group gathered and the officer opened the gate. We told him that we were pleased to see that there was no pressure when all five lanes were open. He claimed it had been like that every day during the last week.

6:30  When we left there were still people in the waiting area, but everything was working smoothly. In the end, we also passed through the humanitarian gate. It took us fifteen minutes to reach the exit from the waiting area.

We were very happy to see that the parking had opened!