Tura checkpoint: usually opens considerably late

14:30-16:30

Anin checkpoint: Construction work on the separation barrier is advancing towards the checkpoint. The section from Umm el-Fahm is already getting close.

The checkpoint opens officially at 15:30, but workers start gathering at 14:30. They are sitting waiting in the shade of the trees. The two soldiers who guard the fence day and night are also sitting and waiting.

We are told that this morning the checkpoint opened at 7:10 and around 170 workers passed through.

The soldiers who open the checkpoint arrive at 15:50 and everyone crosses back home to Anin.

Barta’a checkpoint: The last of the restaurant workers and seamstresses return from the seamline zone to the West Bank (most came earlier). Workers begin to arrive as well. A few people are returning from the West Bank to their homes in the seamline zone, including a dentist who studied in the United States and returned to Nablus 15 years ago, and who now works in a clinic in Tel Aviv. A restaurant worker from Nablus goes to Tel Aviv with him.

Around 16:00, the stream of workers returning to the West Bank increases. Two of them tell us that they arrived at the checkpoint this morning at 5:00, but they only crossed the checkpoint after 90 minutes and went to the upper parking lot.

Tura checkpoint: A father and son are sitting at the checkpoint. The father, a resident of Ya’bed who works there, has been given a permit for himself and his family (5 people) to enter Israel for a family visit. He acquired his Hebrew when he worked in Israel in the past.

Workers returning from work complain that the checkpoint opened significantly late this morning – at 8:00. Six young men from Tura leave for work in Umm el-Fahm and they also complain that the checkpoint has been opening late in the mornings. A few people from the West Bank cross into the seamline zone for a family visit. Palestinian cars cross into the West Bank.