Lots of people outside, lots inside. There was almost total silence in the terminal when we entered, making it seem as if no one was there. When we stepped in, we saw the reason: Armed soldiers were controlling the crowd of workers, directing people to the five lines as they were passing through, and keeping people from crowding next to the windows. We were aghast. Armed soldiers at point blank distance! Actually, the Palestinians who we questioned were satisfied that the crowding was less and the lines went fast (since there were 5 windows open), but the potential for violence and "mistakes" is so great, it makes one shudder.

From the ecumenicals we heard the crowding on the other side was huge and no attempts were made to coordinate the lines on the two different sides.

Quite a few people waiting for special permits, magnetic cards, police. A woman came up to us with the same hand problem as the men we had seen. She is a cleaner, her hands were swollen and the machine doesn't recognize the handprint. So she loses a day of work.
 
After an hour or so, we saw the two men from Hebron and heard their story: their magnetic card was issued at Ram (A-ram?) in the north, their place of birth and present residence is in Bani Naeem. So they were told at Etsion to go to Ram. We phoned the humanitarian moked, and they inquired, then told the men to go to Hebron, but in the end they decided to go to Ram since the other DCL's dont' have them on their computer.