Morning

The wall is the same. There seemed to be fewer people than usual. We were told that until 2pm there had been no passage at aall. Since there were no soldiers, there was nothing for us to do but to help women with babies or with big parcels.At the gas station at the Abu Dis roundabout there was a jeep and 4 BP soldiers. One man was detained for carrying no documents at all. The jeep drove away with him inside. The soldiers were stopping transits going in either direction and checking the IDs of the passengers. They also checked cars thoroughly. A bus arrived, and the soldiers took down 13 Palestinans off it. The soldiers said we couldn't speak with the detainees, but we did it anyway. At their request, we stayed until all of them were let to go. One soldier phoned in their ID numbers. 10 were then let go, and the other 3 had to sign some form. Apparently, it was the first time they were caught. If caught 3 time without a permit - they get a month in jail, explained the soldier. The other 10 were old-timers, in the computer already. The whole process took about half an hour, even though they could detain them for up to 3 hours, as confirmed by the Moked. Then the soldiers stopped another bus and 5 new people were detained. We didn't stay to the end of that process, but the soldiers seemed pretty quick at it. They continued to stop occasionally transits and private cars. As M. said - not a checkpoint, but a trap.