South Hebron

South Hebron Hills, Wednesday 1.12.04, AMWatchers: Haya H, Elena L (reporting)6:30 -9:15We left Shoket at 6:30 and went through Sansana CP without being asked to stop. We drove along route 516 toeards Ma'on and the Zif junction.7:00 an army jeep was parked at the side of the road near Ma'on-We guessed it was the jeep allocated to escort the children of Umm Tubba to Tawwani.Yakinton CP: has completely disappeared. There were a lot of children walking along the road near Yakinton- apparently there is a school nearby. A liitle before the Zif junction there was a flying CP- without detainees.While we were there two Palestinian cars (one of them a taxi) passed through. A settler also drove through and tarried long enough to comment sarcastically on "the useful work" we were doing. The soldiers at the CP were friendly. We left at 7;30.Zif Junction: A hummer stood there and the road towards Yatta was closed.Shiyuh Hebron crossing : No soldiers present and the crossing was open to pedestrians. A large number of pupils were crossing to the girls' school. Some of them tried to engage us in conversation. There were language difficulties but the atmosphere was very friendly.7:50 Sa'ir- East Halhul crossing: Open in both directions. No soldiers present.The Humanitarian CP (Ras al Jura): Closed, but there was no army presence and no traffic. The situation had not changed when we passed the CP again at 8:15.Halhul –Hebron bridge: open to traffic. The ascent to it from route 35 is closed.The road running under route 35 from Beit Kahil is open.Idhna CP: Open; but there was no traffic.We saw 5-6 Palestinnian vehicles (private cars and lorries) driving on route 35 in both directions.8:30 Sheeps' Crossing: open , no soldiers and almost no pedestrians.Dura al-Fawwar Crossing: Open to pedestrians and to cars and there was a fair of amount of traffic. We met Musa from BeTselem there.A little before Shim'a a hummer stopped a Palestinian taxi traveling north in order to Check it. We didn’t see what happened next because we had to get back to Sholket.