Beit Iba, Monday, 13.3.2006 PMObservers: Michal A. Ziona S. Yonah A. (reporting)Natanya translating. 15.45 We park at the carpentry shop and along the way taxi drivers tell us that there are long lines waiting to leave Nablus. We get to the checkpoint and tens of people pass us. We see four detainees from afar. But they are freed after a few minutes. The orders are that as of now only men over 65 pass through the humanitarian line. Everyone else has to pass the detectors at the turnstiles “because yesterday a device was found”. This is what the commander tells us while running from place to place in an impossible attempt to solve problems. 16.00 A woman in the late stages of pregnancy waits for her husband who has to pass through with everyone else. In the morning she had entered Nablus with her husband for a checkup. They live in Tulkarm. We speak to the commander but the only thing he can do is give her a chair and she has to wait. Together with her, a young woman waits with her baby in her arms. 16.20 The husband passes and they go on to the next checkpoint. 16.25 A young Palestinian passes and begins to curse violently. He thinks we have not heard him and he turns to us once again and curses. Only one turnstile is working and the long queue of older men stand in the humanitarian lane but do not pass. 16.30 The commander gives the order and they follow it. He explains later that to release the pressure he has allowed men over 40 to pass on the side and not through the detectors. Some of the men passing express their humiliation and insult. Some of them are surprised that we bother to stand at the checkpoints and tell us to go home. Others say thank you and again say that when we are there things seem different. A young man passes and asks us what we are doing there. He says he arrived at the checkpoint at 14.30 with his wife. They live in Sebastia. His wife passed quickly but had to wait for him. An Italian journalist of about 40 waited in the line outside the turnstile. He also was forced to the back because of his age and then allowed to pass. He had a camera and had evidently photographed what was happening. An elderly man introduces himself as a doctor and says he is humiliated and tired. He has been on his feet since the morning and is exhausted. He thanks us for being there. 16.50 An elderly man comes to us and says that his 16 year old son has not been allowed to pass. He shows us a document that his son has been in hospital with a kidney problem. They live in Tulkarm and want to go home. The commander claims that all Palestinians have such documents in their pockets. We tried to phone Dalia Bassa but the call was cut off. We phoned the humanitarian centre who took the details of father and son. After a quarter of an hour the same man told us he was checking. 15 minutes later the father said he was going back to see what was happening with his son. Neither they nor the humanitarian centre got back to us. But on our way back to the car a private vehicle passed us, hooted and waved at us and we think it was the father and son. 17.10 A long line of cars and a truck leaving Nablus. The commander shouts to the soldiers to free the truck. 17.20 A family leaving Nablus tries to go through the humanitarian center, father, mother and two small children. The father 36 years old is sent to the end of the line and the mother and children pass.The commander again tries to excuse this by saying that it is an order that all young men have to pass through the x-ray machine. 16.50 On our way home at the Jit junction a long line of more than 30 cars waiting to be checked by two soldiers.