Afternoon

MachsomWatchers: R.K., A.H., A.D.Closure on Qalqiliya has been announced, till further notice. Therefore our presence is very important!!!By the new regulations, only people whose ID states Qalqilya are allowed to enter the city. No one can leave the city, not even with a valid permit. There are exceptions, as one of the reserve soldiers told us: "They should wait for a while and then we will declare them as humanitarian cases." That did indeed happen, maybe our presence helped.Ambulances: Throughout our shift, ambulances came in both directions. We timed their wait at the checkpoint. One ambulance was detained for 50 minutes! It is not a reasonable wait, even in the eyes of the IDF's "Moked" [Humanitarian Alert Center]. We gave a card to some of the drivers (Center for Humanitarian of the Individual), after one of the drivers said he had waited and hour and a half at the checkpoint..Army & DCO: At the checkpoint there were reserve soldiers and military police. The closure had to do with all kinds of warnings of attacks, therefore there were officers that came to the checkpoint, including a high ranking officer who was very stressed and did not help anyone. Gamed from DCO did not help at all. At some point a policeman from the DCO arrived, he was willing to help and gave us his numbers.Civilians: one man told us he is waiting for his father, who wants to come out of Kalkilya. His father has a heart condition and is diabetic. Ada called Physicians for Human Rights and the man was let through after 3 hours. The soldiers claimed that she is not sick at all. A couple with a small baby was let in, only because the soldiers took pity on them. The same happened with older women, carrying a baby and a bag of medicine. She had a Israeli ID but is married to a man from Kalkilya.We are sure that our nagging affected the soldiers, even the stressed officer. Even a man from Ramalla, and his brother from Hebron passed. It was the third time they tried passing, on the way to the mans fiance's house. They had permits but during the closure the permits don't help.To conclude:It seems the closure is very convenient for the army. the instruction are very clear- no one should pass. We noticed that the pressure we put on the soldiers at the check point helps the army to " bend the rules" a little.