Qalandiya

Qalandya, 16:15: A long queue of heavy
traffic - cars and trucks - as far as the eye can see in the
direction of Jaba’a - probably a military temporary checkpoint near
Tora Bora, creating queues in both directions.

16:25 A Palestinian tells us he'd been stopped by a military ambush
at Tora Bora at 14:00 and wants his papers back, they told him it
would take 4 hours. At the checkpoint - a soldier sends several
young Palestinian women back to Ramallah, saying cynically: Watch
out and take care, it's a dangerous place - Ramallah" laughing
at his own joke... Several detainees had been ambushed at Tora
Bora. One of them tripped and hurt himself, bleeding in several
places - we tried unsuccessfully to get him a first aid
kit.

16:35 2 BPs stand at the pathway right by the checkpoint checking
people's papers - they detain about 15 people. The confiscated
papers of those detained at Tora Bora at 14:00 would not get back
before 20:00 or 21:00, because no one bothers to bring over the
papers from the other unit in charge of the ambushes. We called the
Moked.

16:50 A guy from Jericho is sent back to Surda - he has no magnetic
card or pass. He's told to go to Beit El (next morning - since they
close at 17:00) to get a day pass in order to go to Jericho and get
a pass there that will enable him to go back to Ramallah... Cars
are checked swiftly and let through - no lines.

17:20 A person who lives in Ar-Ram but whose ID address is Hebron,
and Beit El won't give him a pass to get to Hebron... 2 blue capped
policemen arrive and join the checking of IDs - apparently they are
detectives for criminal offences...

17:25 The ID cards of the detainees are returned, but they must go
back north. A young couple - she's sick and has a blue ID and her
husband doesn't - need to reach her father who's a doctor at Bidu -
we intervene and they are let through, after a check on his
data.

17:40 An old woman holding on to a boy with a young woman carrying
a sleeping baby are sent back, we join her - they haven't the right
ID cards and the children don't appear on them but they are let
through to Beit Haninah anyway. A student of architecture at Bir
Zeit with a Jordanian passport (no visa and no pass) had been
preparing his final project, and now wants to go home to Anata - is
told to go through Surda.

18:05 A man who underwent heart surgery - has some old hospital
papers in Arabic to prove it - claims he'd been to see a doctor in
Ramallah but has no papers to prove it. He's not let through and
disappears north.

18:15 A woman student from Bir Zeit who live in Jericho - says she
hasn't been home in 3 months but has no pass. Now wants to go home
after her last exam. Claims she was told in Beit El it would take 2
weeks to get a pass. A soldier explains that that's true, but she
would get a temporary pass, which the army would respect. She
doesn't have one...

18:35 An ambulance with the siren on comes from the south, is
checked immediately and let through northward. Long lines of heavy
traffic from the south to Jaba’a and north and from Jaba’a.