Beit Iba, Crossroads ofJit, Saturday,10.6.2006, AM Nadim, Adina A. Eilat (reporting)Natanya translating. 07.19 Checkpoint Jit. A checkpoint from east to west with 5 cars waiting but no detainees. Checking of cars takes about 4 minutes. Until we got to Beit Iba we saw no other checkpoints. 7.35 Beit Iba. 11 cars at the entrance and in the course of time, great pressure. A young father with a 7 year old and a taxi driver are detained. The driver showed me marks of a beating on his wrist and claimed that the soldier had aimed his rifle at him, pushed him with his weapon and cursed him. We approached the commander, first sergeant I. and asked him why these people were detained and told him what the driver had told me. He asked a soldier what had happened and immediately freed them. The second soldier took the IDs out of his pocket and gave them to the detainees. The driver again told the commander what had happened and was told that he should have told him. I said to the commander that not always did he go up to the detainees and often they had no possibility of reaching him. The soldier told the commander that it was the Palestinian who was lying and that he had been the one to do the pushing but this does not seem like a credible story. A very large and empty truck with a yellow number plate turns towards Kuchin. Minibuses and buses with passengers…men between the ages of 15-30 alight and are checked and then return to the buses. Many doctors’ cars and teams with medical equipment are leaving Nablus. One doctor complains bitterly that he waited an hour to an hour and a half and vents his anger and bitterness on me. This is the day after the massacre on the beach of Gaza. 8.25 We phone Shira at the humanitarian centre. The siren of an ambulance is heard from the furthest end of the line. The second line is full of cars which have passed the checked from the direction of Nablus. Another one arrives from the east. The siren of the ambulance is heard but it is not clear how he will get through as the only way for him is blocked by cars exiting Nablus. We asked sergeant I. to help and with no delay and no soldiers he went to the end of the line with directions on the communications to those checking from the east not to allow cars through in the meantime and so managed with a great effort to free the pressure. 8.45A truck on which is written in big letters “transfer of milk to hospitals” leaves Nablus and waits an hour and a half and most of the drivers from the east say that they also wait an hour and a half. The commander I. tells us that it is his own personal opinion that the presence of Machsomwatch women is a positive action and necessary to bring about changes at the checkpoints both as to the behavior of the soldiers and the physical conditions if not the policy.