Afternoon

Arrived at 14:55. The commander, a reserved solider named Gutman, and the others, were very friendly towards us.Gutman says that tomorrow there will be total closure, only extreme humanitarian cases in ambulances will be let through. A taxi driver at the northern end (between Tulkarm & Taibe) say that the Tulkarm checkpoint is the real and aggressive one, manned by BP. He said they had beaten up young boys several days ago, and he complained to a military commander giving him the license number of the BP jeep, but nothing was done. He also says some BPs threaten Israeli arabs who want to enter Tulkarm with fines of up to 5000 shekels, and that usually at around 16:00 the BP come here and make the taxi drivers move further away. Almost every night ataround 2 AM in his neighborhood in Tulkarm they come soldiers and shoot in the air frightening and awakening everybody, claiming that they are searching for someone "wanted". 15:12 A Red crescent ambulance comes from the east, is checked immediately and allowed to go north to Tulkarm. 15:25 In the back-to-back area, M. is in charge, probably a collaborator, a soldier told us. M. was very friendly, he brought us popcicles. He decides whose turn it is to unload, and gets bribed (for example to let the ice-cream truck with no refrigerator unload before everything melts). The soldiers don't interfere with this way of doing business. He runs the show, letting the soldiers know that some truck is about to arrive and should be let through, etc. Cargo from Tulkarm, we're told, includes clothes for Castro, Diezel, etc., cigarettes (tobacco and filters come from Israel and rolled cigarettes come back) This area belonged to an Israeli Arab but was confiscated and he was given some other land. The wall will be built on this area. The soldiers are friendly and answer all our questions. They are reserves. Pedestrians are all let through, but they are few, mostly women who work in agriculture in Kalanswa. 16:00 Two more ambulances are allowed through to Tul-Karem from the east. A man who walked through the olive groves (Tora Bora) was checked and let through. Women who passed through there were disregarded by the soldiers.