Reihan, Shaked, Tue 1.1.08, Morning
05:55 - 07:30
05:55 Reihan Checkpoint
It's cold and dark. In the upper parking lot, transports are waiting for men and women passing through the terminal and coming out to go to work. They wish us a "Happy New Year."
Passage through the terminal, according to one of the people, took half an hour without extra checks in the side room.
One of the seamstresses has been waiting for more than 15 minutes for her comrade, in addition to the half hour it took to pass. She passed today "directly" while her friend was apparently held up in the inspection rooms.
Five vans are waiting in the lower parking lot, loaded with goods for the Seam Zone. The cold is forcing the drivers back into their cabs.
The waiting shed reveals the usual picture: piles of egg trays next to Walid's stand, there since the day before yesterday.
People going to the Seam Zone enter at the yellow gate and through the turnstile into the terminal without any delay. The group that arrived early in the morning is already through. Now the traffic, individuals or small groups, is swallowed quickly down the lane to the terminal.
At the southern edge of the parking lot, by the yellow iron gate, men's clothing, a shirt, jeans, socks, and a torn black bag, strewn on the ground, for of holes. Somebody has forgotten the bag here yesterday and the soldiers fired at it to make sure that it wasn't booby trapped, and left the contents strewn in every direction.
07:15 Shaked Checkpoint
Schools are closed, so the checkpoint and the road leading to it are quite deserted at this hour. On the Tura (West Bank) side ten people are waiting. The old man with his white donkey has already crossed. We saw him on his way to Umm Reihan for his daily visit to his daughter, sitting hunched over against the cold, while the donkey navigates its own way.
An older man tells us that his 25-year -ld son is ill with cancer. Till October he was treated in a hospital in Jordan. The Jordanians, so he says, have recommended that he takes the son for treatment at Hadassah (chemotherapy and/or transplant). Another man who heard the conversation, and introduced himself as a council member from Tura, said that the Palestinian Authority would finance the treatment, and the Palestinian DCO in Jenin would arrange the necessary permit. The father didn't seem to be completely convinced. We asked him to call to inform us how it was working out. Perhaps we can intervene on his behalf.