Awarta, Beit Furik, Burin (Yitzhar), Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), Thu 21.2.08, Afternoon

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Observers: 
Moran Y. and Yehudit L. (reporting); Translation: Hanna K
Feb-21-2008
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Afternoon

14:06 Two Hummers pass us in the opposite direction, as well as a military vehicle with a big container (near the turning to Haris)
14:08 Three soldiers watch at the hitch hike station near Ariel
14:11
The entrance to Zeita is closed by concrete blocks

14:14 Za'tara/Tapuah Junction:
 15 vehicles coming from the west are waiting and are being checked at the check post no. 1. Coming from the north there are 17 vehicles waiting to be checked, in 3 check post. There is a segregation: the inhabitants of Jenin and Nablus, aged 16-35 are not allowed to leave their place. (but) we are not to know this.

14:22 - at the entrance to Beita it is quiet
14:24 The Burin/Yitzhar CPs are not manned

14:26 The Huwwara CP -
Part of the people entering Nablus are checked by two soldiers (near the water trough)
In the cell there are three detaineesinfo-icon, waiting for more than 4 hours. נער בצינוקTwo young men and a child. Photos will be attached. The CP commander arrived and says: to call the police?
Some details about the detainees: One is from the village of Bidya, and the second young man and the child are from Beita. The information about the detainees will be sent to Assaf from the Human Rights Association.
Before entering the shed of the CP two men from Beita tell us that during the night, at 02:00, a curfew was imposed, many military units entered the village and had about 60 men leave their houses. They were put on a bus which left the village. Until this hour about 30 people were returned and the others are still detained. Only about 20 minutes ago the curfew on Beita was lifted. One of the men said that his brother and cousin were taken, another said that his son, aged about 21, was taken. He said that when the soldiers entered the house they threw all the objects out of the cupboard and stepped on the Koran.
We transmitted the details to Noa P.
While we were contacting the Center at Ariel to report - the three detainees were released.
T., the DCO representative who now arrived, helps to solve a few problems: A truck driver with vegetables who drove on the Apartheid road, is released, relatively quickly, a Palestinian from Tubas, the owner of a business at the market in Beita, accompanied by his son, who works with him, is not allowed to pass on to his house in Tobas because of his son (in his twenties) - here too the DCO representative lets common sense prevail and the authorization is given (the details of the man will be sent to Micky F.)
[Tubas belongs to the Jenin area according to the lists of areas and division of towns and\or villages appearing in them - everything is noted in the table stuck to the checking shed of the vehicles entering Nablus which T. allows us to see. By the way, on the list there are a few villages about which it is written that the segregation doesn't apply to them].
In the detention cell there is now a young man - T. tries to find out for us why he is there: the lad tried to pass at the side queue together with a woman he said was his wife, but it turned out that she was his aunt, and so he was told to go back to the beginning of the queue or be put into the detention cell, and that is what happened. T. tries to speed up his release and succeeds an hour later.  Near the shed a boy was detained because, according to T., they found on him keys that belong to the army (?!). He was released rather quickly.
There are three checking posts for the young men, the magnometers work, but they still have to lift their shirts, a military policewoman and two soldiers check them. The side queue is very slow and continues beyond the shed, and only when the DCO man went there the elderly, the woman and the children began passing as usual - today there are many students returning home for the weekend.
There is an x-ray maching, there is no dog-trainer. There is no load on the queue of the vehicles entering Nablus, and this is what is told to us by the volunteers from the ecumenical church regarding the queue of the vehicles leaving Nablus.
An Israeli girl (an immigrant from Russia) entered by mistake on the side of Nablus at the CP and passed again to the side of Huwwara. All this happened because she was told to show her ID card, because she is married to an inhabitant of Nablus who lives with her in Tel Aviv. They have a child, and he too in his babyinfo-icon carriage, is at the CP. After two hours her husband succeeded to pass.

16:14 Beit Furik-
At the parking lot 4 vehicles await their turn to pass the CP in the direction of Nablus. The CP commander greets us with the order not to pass the white line. We are told (by a driver who passed from Beit Furik to Nablus) that about 10 vehicles coming from Nablus are awaiting their turn in order to reach Beit Furik. Only one checking lane is operated alternately to check the vehicles. Three soldiers are checking, the driver leaves the car, shows his ID and then the car is checked.  In the pedestrians' shed we see about 15-20 Palestinians coming home from Nablus, waiting to be checked. An invalid woman passes the CP with great difficulty.

16:55 - Awarta - (peeping from the main road) we see 7 trucks heading for Nablus, waiting.

17:05 - Back to the Huwwara CP - in the detention shed there is a 24 years old, who is not believed to be a doctor. He is released a short time after our arrival.

Burin/Yitzhar CPs - are not manned, near Beita - all is quiet

17:40 Za'tara - 30 vehicles coming from the north, two checking posts, coming from the east one vehicle, one checking post

17:44 Zeita - the entrance is closed

According to the Center - men aged 16-35 are not allowed to pass in the whole northern Samaria.
A siege.