Beit Iba, Sunday 11 July 2004 PM Observers: Shelly M., Naomi L. (reporting) colour=red>On Thursday 8 July at 21.30, Muhammad Hamis al Roba from Hajja village (near Funduk) was shot to death. He was only 22. We were told about it by detainees at the checkpoint and drove to Funduk to ask what had happened. This is the story as related by A. from Funduk.Two weddings were being celebrated at Hajja and Baq’a when a large military vehicle arrived on patrol. Muhammad was driving towards it in a private car and passed the vehicle on the left. The soldiers called out to him to stop, but, fearful, he didn’t stop fast enough. They fired a bullet into his head and his car crashed into a wall. The military vehicle immediately drove away. The villagers summoned aid and evacuated him to hospital, but he had been killed instantaneously.The following day representatives of the army and the civil administration visited the family and expressed their regret. B’tselem — the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories — was informed. We asked A. to convey our condolences to the family. Will someone inform them that they can demand compensation from the army? Time is not on their side.Work has ended at the checkpoint: now there are signs, white-painted road markings, even a marked crossing from nowhere to the middle of the road! Traffic flowed smoothly throughout our watch. There was a sticky puddle of juice attracting flies on the table where the contents of packages are emptied out. The soldier refused to clean it, saying : “It’s not my job.”A local young man, supporting 13 people since his father’s death, wanted to enter Nablus to go to work. Because of his age [ Palestinian men between the ages of 16 and 30 — those most likely to be suspected of terrorist activities — have a hard time moving around the Occupied Territories and are likely to be detained for lengthy checks to ascertain their security status every time they go through a checkpoint], he was refused and sent to the District Co-ordinating Office (DCO) [the army section that handles civilian matters] to obtain a permit [a mission that may end in failure, but will, whatever the case, cost him one or more likely several wasted days] . He decided to try his luck through the hills. A soldier on lookout spotted his escape and two soldiers ran after him. Twenty minutes later they returned empty-handed.Detainees: the shade shelter has been appropriated as a new and smartened up firing position for the soldiers. Two taxi drivers were being punished for taking passengers to Deir Sharaf although they don’t live in the area. Some of the detainees had been waiting more than four hours. One of the soldiers who ran after the “escapee” had been on his way to release them and so they waited another 20 minutes till the soldiers returned. A young man from Habla, detained for three and a half hours, was accompanying his sick mother to the doctor in Nablus and she was waiting with him.A young patient with kidney disease was being taken home by ambulance after a visit to the hospital. His medical documents were in Arabic. The soldiers questioned him, the driver directed them to the doctors, they went away and returned after 20 minutes, when they finally released him.The line of trucks and vehicles was not long, and the wait was relatively short.When we left there were new detainees who’d been caught on the hills; they’d already been detained for four hours and were to be kept till the evening as a punishment.