Beit Iba, Jit, Tue 18.3.08, Morning

Jit  -  the junction is unmanned.

 Beit Iba 07:25-09:00  - 
A morning of thorough checking, both of pedestrians and vehicles. Most passers are students. All young men entering Nablus pass a thorough ID check, and the ones who don't carry their books in their hands have to empty their bags. At the exit side the magnometer sqeals, and the men come out as usual putting on their belts and sometimes their shoes as well. The vehicles, both entering and exiting the city, are checked thoroughly as well: the inside of the car, the boot  - no dogs though. This applies to hand-carts and donkey-carts as well, coming in or out. Everybody has to go on foot: an octogenarian who can hardly walk or many mothers carrying tiny babies in their arms, apparently there is some kind of clinic today.  A young boy who seems to have pushed someone else is handled roughly by the soldier and pushed back. The DCO T. [Tomer] behaves more like a regular soldier manning the checkpoint, helps out by occasionally checking IDs etc.