Barta’a checkpoint – the last of the seamstresses working in Barta’a return with their purchases to the West Bank.  As 4 PM approaches the flow increases of workers returning from Israel and the seam zone.  Some tell us, “Now you come?  Come in the morning if you really want to see something…” and say, “I arrive at 03:00 and go through at 05:30.  It takes an hour to get through the terminal – an hour, every single day.”

Residents of the seam zone who’d gone to Jenin for errands and visits return home.

An Israeli car is detained in the Israeli lane to the West Bank – the inspectors notice the passengers are Israeli Arabs and the car is carefully checked.

Two new parking areas in Area C beyond the checkpoint, adjacent to the village of Zbeida, are being prepared.  They are apparently intended for Palestinians and have been approved.  Let’s hope the addition will solve the problem of illegal parking along the roadsides.

The Israeli police have come to the checkpoint.  We also see them later at the Tura checkpoint where they stop to ask, “How’s it going?”

Tura checkpoint – There seem to be additional soldiers at the checkpoint.

Workers and seamstresses are returning to the West Bank from their jobs, mostly from the seam zone.

One tells us that the checkpoint opened an hour late that morning, after 7 AM, the crossing was disorganized and there were delays, “different soldiers each time, with different moods.”  About 70 people crossed in the morning, some of them teachers in the seam zone who, of course, were late to school.

Cars cross in both directions, quickly.  A student, a family with an infant and children returning from Jenin, and workers on the second shift, all cross to the seam zone.  The family was detained briefly at the checkpoint because the three-month-old baby lacked appropriate documents.