Beit Iba, Wed 17.10.07, Morning

Students enter by foot to Nablus.  They are all checked, but there are no detentions.  Very light traffic of vehicles in every direction.

The checkpoint commander and another soldier rush out on the trail of three women who are by-passing the checkpoint from the direction of Qusin.  After they are checked, they are not only not punihsed, but the commander doesn't bother them to go another few hundred meters around the checkpoint, but lets them go off on their way.  A strange sight.

The journalist, Mahmud Nasser, reports that two people were killed in Nablus yesterday.  One was "wanted", 35 years old, and the other was an elderly man of 72 who opened the door and was shot.  Both of them died from their wounds in the hospital.  The army was in Nablus this morning too, but there were no incidents.

The checkpoint at 'Ain Bidan has not been manned since Ramadan and the passage is open.