Bethlehem (300)

We arrived at 5.45. There were  people coming through but much fewer than usual.

The soldiers and security guards were friendly. The one whom we had seen smoking the previous week was sitting down, not seeming very alert as to what was happening but at least he was not smoking.
An old woman had trouble going through….we were not sure what was happening but eventually it turned out that though she was “prevented” she insisted on coming to the Israeli side  followed by a woman soldier and one of the security guards and then it turned out that she had just wanted to go and pick up a parcel which someone had  brought her. She was treated very politely. But as the soldier said instead of all that fuss why could someone simply not have brought it to her. The thought struck us though that had someone brought it inside and handed it to her it might have also not have been so simple.

We left at 7.00 as all was quiet.