Afternon

Cold day, hard rain, windy, no view to be seen at all – apocalyptic feeling…15:30 At Jafer’s we met a Palestinian plastic surgeon and his wife, who live in Paris. They had missed their flight home yesterday because they weren’t allowed to enter the checkpoint. In his taxi A. took us through tiny alleys because there are surprise checkpoints mid-way between E-Ram and Qalandya. He explains that taxi drivers who are forbidden to work between E-Ram & Qalandya cannot work elsewhere, because every zone has its own station with regular drivers. Qalandya North – very few pedestrians, not many cars. A soldier tells us there’s no curfew, despite what the media says.17:20 An ambulance ICU came from the north, is checked and swiftly let through.17:30 A person who claims he’s an epileptic, and who mentions particular medications he receives, needs to return to his home in Nablus, but has no permit. Rcalled the military Moked Humanitarian service – as well as the Moked and we spoke with the soldiers – but to no avail. Finally the guy picked up his bag and rushed forward, saying he’s going through no matter what. A ran after him, spent some time talking to the volunteer guy (Shraga) and to our amazement he let him through. A and some drivers north of Qalandya told us they work every day from 5 AM – distributing bread from Berman and other necessary goods, and work until 6 PM each day. His son had been shot in the head two years ago, at the age of 8, when joining a demonstration of stone throwing near Qalandya. Shrapnel is still inside his head, which is deformed. He needs medical treatment either in Hadassa or abroad because it does not exist in Ramallah. The option to be sent by the Palestinian authority to Germany was cancelled because of the war and for Hadassa it would cost a lot of money which he hasn’t got We are trying to find a solution for him through Physicians for Human Rights.