SARRA,HUWWARA, BEIT FURIK, Sunday 27 June 2004 AM Observers: Dina, Hanna, Nora, Snait ( reporting) colour = red>In Summary A shift marked by unannounced roadblocks; no shade in either of the Huwwara checkpoints; water available only in Huwwara North, where the only lavatory at the checkpoint is also situated; relatively few people at the checkpoints due to a semi-closure in the wake of yesterday’s Israel army actions in Nablus; the age limit for men who must have permits if they are to stand a chance of going through the checkpoints was 16-30; soldiers in Huwwara were very much on their guard, militarily speaking —- “covering” every move of those who did the actual checking.07.45 — Sarra Surprisingly, there were five vans and lorries , one empty bus and nine men who’d all been waiting at least 30 minutes at the checkpoint . Among them were three vans carrying milk for a Nablus hospital ( with the Red Crescent sign etc) which had no refrigeration. The explanation for the unaccustomed traffic here was that part of the Beit Iba road was being tarred , so that vehicles were not allowed through to Nablus and were diverted to Sarra.Abiding by their regular rules, no vehicles were allowed through, and the soldiers — who had not been notified of the diversion by the Beit Iba people — were trying their best to get permission for all of them to go through. While we were there , the milk vans and another van were told to go to Huwwara, one van carrying gas containers gave up and went back the way it had come , and the bus was told to wait for General Security Services (GSS, also known as Shabak or Shin Bet) security clearance because the driver had gone up a road he was not supposed to travel. The labourers began walking to Nablus, and two elderly people joined a cab with women from Sarra bound for Nablus.Since we got no answers to calls to the District Co-ordinating Office (DCO) [the army section that handles civilian matters] nor from the army’s “humanitarian” centre, nor from DB, we called the area commander’s office and asked them to find a more general solution to this problem rather than having the soldiers attempt to solve it piecemeal, vehicle by vehicle.08.15There was an unannounced roadblock at the Shavei Shomrom junction with about four vehicles on each of the three sides. We followed the milk vans.08.30There were two more unannounced roadblocks on the road from Sarra to Huwwara past the Zer farm and down at the Yizhar junction, with lorries and vans in three directions at the latter. The soldier listened to the “milk vans ” story and let them go fairly quickly.Because of construction work now underway, most of the shade shelters have been dismantled at both the Huwwara checkpoints.09.15 — Huwwara SouthThere were few people, but there were six young detainees and an extremely stiff and tense checkpoint commander. It took quite a while to get the milk vans and a couple of ambulances through the checkpoint and on their way. Every one, including old women and children, had to empty out their luggage. We were pleasantly surprised by Y., the more senior officer, who came for a short while: he was eager to cooperate and to hear of any mistreatment of Palestinians by his men. He asked for our reports to be handed to him or his colleague at Huwwara North.09.40 — Huwwara North, (to which we also returned at 11.00) There were markedly more people wishing to get out of Nablus: so there was a long line of vehicles, including four ambulances; there were also nine detainees( waiting for about an hour), and four cars, each of which had been confiscated for four days. The DCO representative, A., was responsible for the queue of men aged over 30, and refused to do anything more than that. Women were passed through one by one, and each of them had to open/empty every item of luggage. Among the detainees where two who were being taken care of by our colleague N.L. and wished to get to the DCO — they were men who had studied abroad and now couldn’t get out the country to go either to an additional specialization ( to Jordan) or back to their study place ( Pakistan). The head of the checkpoint seemed pretty decent, and actually severely chided the GSS for holding up people so long under the scorching sun [checkpoints send the ID details of detainees by phone to the GSS which cross-checks against its list of security suspects and then contacts the checkpoint again; until security clearance comes through — often a matter of hours — the detainees are virtual prisoners at the checkpoint since their ID cards have to be surrendered to the soldiers throughout the checking process].When we came back to this side of the checkpoint at 11:00, the “old” detainees had been released but there were seven new ones; there were no vehicles queuing to go through. The detainees had been told to sit with their backs to the checkpoint facing into the mid-day sun so as “not to see how the soldiers manage the job”!! After making some calls we went back to Huwwara South.Here, there were three cases of Palestinians holding medical referrals with today’s date who were not permitted through the checkpoint: we called Physicians for Human Rights; the head of the Nablus hospital was refused permission to go through with his car: we called DB, in charge of medical services in the occupied territories, who is usually very quick and helpful, and she arranged for a DCO representative to come and sort out the matter; there were also quite a few foreign press vehicles and four ambulances. The soldier in charge was extremely stiff and thus blundered again and again even with clear-cut cases (e.g. the head of the hospital). The detainees were still there.The road from Awwarta to Nablus- usually crowded with lorries – was completely empty because of the semi-closure.10.40 Beit Furik The checkpoint here was almost empty of both vehicles and people. There was no shade anywhere for the Palestinians.The line beyond which cabs are not supposed to travel is around 350 metres from the checkpoint proper : we were told that special cases can ask for permission to drive closer. There were three detainees — youngsters( two of them below the age of 16) who had been caught half-an-hour earlier trying to circumventing the checkpoint; we were promised that they would be released within the hour. But when we made contact again from Tel Aviv at 13:15 they were still there; R., a senior officer at the DCO, promised to take care of their release. At 11:00 we went back to Huwwara North (see above).All the shops in Huwwarra were closed and shuttered in mourning for those killed yesterday in Nablus [in clashes with the Israel army]. 11.15 At Za’tara( Tapuah junction) there was a queue of 22 vehicles waiting to be checked, mostly vans and lorries.