Habla Checkpoint (1393)

The occupation routine, the gates are opened more or less on time, the persons passing do it easily.

[we arrived early and two young men pass easily through the holes in the gates and arrive at the Israeli side – infiltrators]

We arrived early and sat relaxedly under the shed (how fortunate that it exists) to chat with the people arriving. Slowly more persons arrive, returning from work, an acquaintance, a veteran worker at the checkpoint invites us to her home, but this it impossible as she lives at Habla. She says she remembers me from the time we were standing at the Ras Atiya CP. The returning persons say that they are coming home at noon as it is hot, and there is the Ramadan, a difficult situation.

13:40 The soldiers arrive and open the CP. In their opinion the opening time of the CP is 13:40 to 14:10.

The many persons returning pass, but now they all have to go by the checking booth in order to enter or exit, meganometer and everything. To our question what had changed after such a long time since they passed by telephone checking, the soldiers told us that the lock of the booth was damaged and it took time to repair it.  (months). Army efficiency?

A great number of cars pass in both direction and also a small number of pedestrians pass from Habla in the direction of the plant nurseries. At 14:00 the queues dispersed and at 14:10 the gates were closed.

We made a long visit at O.s from the plant nursery. A lot of complaints about the behavior of the army/DCO – Israeli and Palestinian, concerning the passage permits for workers at the beginning of the Corona period. Now things have calmed down and the workers work more or less as usual. There is a lot of work. Also there is an enormous new plant nursery near the checkpoint.