JITT JUNCTION, HUWWARA SOUTH, Wednesday 28 April 2004 PMObservers: Irit S., Nellie K., Eilat B., Deborah L. (reporting) colour = red> (Please see other reports for Huwwara North (Irit S. reporting) and Beit Iba (Daphna B. reporting Summary–Jitt junction: We arrived here at about 14:00 hours to find an unannounced road block, with 16 detainees at the side of the road, and a family with a teenager who had kidney problems and who had just come from the hospital after some medical procedure. They claimed they had been waiting for two hours. There was a continual flow of vehicles, including six or seven buses. Only traffic going towards the junction from the north was stopped. The trucks and cars went through the check quickly, but the buses took a from 10 minutes to a half-hour and detainees were often taken aside and kept long after their buses had left (between 20 minutes and three hours). Many of the detainees were students who had come from Beit Iba. The soldiers were annoyed that we were there and said we hindered their work. B’Tselem [the Israel Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories] personnel came by while we were there .Jitt Junction: All the detainees we saw were young, except for one man of about 57 whom the soldiers claimed was active in the Fatah. They said they were waiting for a jeep to pick him up. He claimed he was the driver for the Palestinian Authority’s minister of the interior, and this was apparently true since he was allowed to leave the checkpoint sometime later. Checking the buses (each had approximately 50 passengers) entailed getting everyone off, separating men and women, organizing them into straight lines, examining the bus thoroughly inside, and checking the ID cards of all passengers before they re-boarded. One passenger was removed from the first bus that was stopped while we were there (14:30). The young man was not sent across the street with the other detainees but held near the soldiers on the same side of the street. They said he was a Fatah member and at 14:50 he was blindfolded and his hands were tied and jeep no. 610800 took him away. We called to complain and kept calling and were told he was being kept for security reasons. One detainee was held from the next bus (14:50), but released 20 minutes later . Ten students were taken off the last bus that we observed : 45 minutes later, Irit went up to one of the soldiers and discovered that he had not yet even called in their ID card numbers [the numbers are checked by telephone against a central list of those wanted for “security” reasons]. The soldier then asked a colleague to call them in. But we had to leave at 16:10; however we remained in touch with the detainees who were not released until about 18:00.Summary–Huwwara South:There was another unannounced roadblock between Huwwara checkpoint and the village of Huwwara, with about 15 vehicles waiting. We arrived at Huwwara south at 16:20 and split into two groups. Nellie and Deb stayed on the south side. Both the pedestrian and the vehicular lines were not long and they were processed quickly. There were about 20 detainees. B’Tselem representatives on the spot told us one group of detainees had just been let go and a new group had already formed. This group was eventually released to be replaced by another , which was held until we left. The soldiers claimed that one of the detainees had managed to run off and that they still had his ID card . Two detainees, who live in a village within sight of the checkpoint , were kept an unnecessarily long time because their ID cards had been put in the wrong pile.N., the officer in charge, although initially rather hostile and defensive, later relaxed and was helpful by the end. Working with him was much more efficient then making phone calls or talking to the other soldiers, who did not seem to know the rules about who was to be allowed through the checkpoint and were also not familiar with the villages around Nablus .Huwwara south: The following are some of the cases with which we were concerned : A family of four — husband, wife and two children — wanted to go to Nablus to consult a specialist abut the younger child who they claimed had pains in her legs and some neurological problems. The soldiers were prepared to let the mother and children through, but they told the father there was no point in his waiting because he would not be let through since it was unclear if he lived in Nablus or in Jericho. He himself had not been clear on the subject and the soldiers felt they had caught him in a lie. We tried to intervene but to no avail. The family waited around until the end of our shift when N. eventually agreed to let them go in with an ambulance that was willing to take them. Eight people from a nearby village had had their ID cards taken away and had been told to pick them up at the checkpoint. But when they appeared, they were told their documents were not there. Nellie wrote down all their names and spoke to N. who started to make some phone calls, when suddenly one of the soldiers found all the missing documents A young Palestinian had returned from Thailand as a tourist and was told he could not go through the checkpoint to Nablus. Nellie intervened and spoke to N. who explained to the other soldiers that since the young man had come in through the Allenby Bridge [a border crossing between Israel and Jordan] and not Ben Gurion Airport , he should be allowed through to Nablus.Just as we were leaving , a group of older men (in their fifties) were stopped by the soldiers who took their identity cards for checking. Again Nellie spoke to N., who clarified the “rules” for his subordinates: men over 35 are allowed through the checkpoint without such checks. Unfortunately we had leave at 18:45 before the last group of detainees was released. N. claimed they would soon be let go. On the way back, we noticed that the unannounced roadblock between the checkpoint and Huwwara village was still operating, and that there were about 17 vehicles waiting in line to go past.