Southern Hebron Mountains: nothing new under the wintery sky.

The Palestinian parking lots are totally full.  The landlords of the checkpoint collect 5 shekels a day to park.  Today an order was put into effect that large trucks from the quarries cannot pass through during peak hours, and in response, drivers prepare a demonstration to complain that the order harms their livelihood.

Aside from that, the breach in the separation fence is still active and many people pass through it.

Six kilometers north of the checkpoint, west of the highway, heavy tractors are working, apparently preparing a new area or a road that will connect Tene Omarim to highway 60.  We will continue to monitor this.

At last, an entrance to Hebron from the village of Clarice is open.  The road continues until the District Command on the Palestinian side. In all my years in Machsom Watch, that had been the passage point for transporting goods from a truck-to-truck in a method called “back-to-back.”  We spoke to people there who are also very happy about this new entrance.

In the photo below:  Soldiers lined the whole length of the road on the top of the large cement blocks that a generally empty, and guard the road, perhaps after the attack in Jerusalem yesterday.

There is nothing new under the wintery sky.