Morning

Qalandya south - On our arrival to the checkpoint we immediately saw the group of detainees held inside the brown caravan, through the barred windows it seemed that there were about 15-20 men. They were caught passing through the Tora Bora, One woman was standing outside the caravan. At our request the checkpoint commander came to speak to us. As we had assumed, the woman also a detainee couldn’t stay inside being the only woman among the group of men. He promised that he will release them soon, once ID's were checked. He also let us approach the woman who told us that she was held there for two hours, since 6-15 in the morning. The soldiers denied that but the important thing is that she had her ID back few minutes later and released earlier than the rest of the group. the others were released later on the whole after 2.5 hours. A smaller second group was brought soon afterwards also caught at the Tora Bora and were released after 45 min.QAt the checkpoint pedestrians passed north without checking, vehicles passed north quiet fast too though trucks were checked thoroughly.A group of ten women was waiting for a ride, accompanied by two UN delegate. These women were school teachers in west Jerusalem, their magnetic card was such that enables them to pass the checkpoint due to humanitarian causes. They were denied passage three times at the checkpoint today so they called the UN delegate who managed to get them through. The women complained a lot about losing many days of work like that.Qalandya North - Passage from north to south was also quick and smooth, no special event marked. The soldiers today were nice and cooperative, on one hand believing that what they do at the checkpoint is very important to Israelis security, and on the other hand, recognizing the basic needs of the Palestinians trying to avoid the checking. One female soldier bothered to find and arrange a lift north for a handicapped man. Some Palestinians showed gratitude gestures towards us.