'Awarta, Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), Wed 5.5.10, Morning

Translator:  Charles K.

Za’tara/Tapuach junction

7:45  Much traffic, but it flows without stopping.  Because of the heavy traffic, three lanes were opened going south.  After a few minutes, when traffic lessened, the right-hand lane was closed.

Huwwara

8:05  Passage to Nablus is open, but soldiers at the junction send two trucks to Awarta.

Cars leaving Nablus are stopped briefly.  There’s a dog handler on site, but we didn’t see the dog working.

The checkpoint commander was polite and didn’t try to chase us away, but was stingy with answers.  He wished us a nice day when we parted.  No surprise – they’re a Naha”l unit – Battalion 50.

Awarta

8:30  A car enters for inspection.  According to the soldiers (also Naha”l), all trucks leaving Nablus for the territories are inspected.  They say they don’t know where the inspections are conducted, or by whom.  The car was inspected quickly – it took about 10 minutes.

Beit Furik

8:45  Almost no cars.  Everything is open, and the valley on our right is still green.  At first we saw no soldiers, but then two Naha”l soldiers came over to us.  They wanted to insure we knew that entry is forbidden to Israelis.