Bethlehem, Monday, 10.10.2005, AMObservers: Haya A. Malka A.07.00 – At the Gilo crossroads there is a temporary checkpoint. At the Beit Jala crossroads there is an unmanned checkpoint and traffic flows freely.Al-Khadr There is little traffic and few pedestrians, no soldiers or police and it seems that with Ramadan there are few traders. A man who is “refused by the police” and whose wife and small children live in Acre, asks us for help. Haya tells him to contact the Humanitarian centre, El Chak and the lawyer Saint Ivo. 8.00 – The way south to Nebi Yunis, next to the refugee camps of El Arub is a military vehicle. We pass Hawarra, Beit Umar, and go back north through the checkpoint of Beni Yunis-Sayir-Halhul on our way to Ezyon.9.45 Only a few people, some of whom need a permit from the police captain, but the window is closed. No one knows when it will open. Haya manages to find out that he will arrive at 12.00 and the following day also at 12.00, and a man immediately writes down the announcement in Arabic. A young man needs medical attention to his eye in Jerusalem but cannot get permission to pass even though he has a letter from the clinic. I speak to Dalia Bassa and tell the young man he can get treatment in Hebron and Saint John. People say there is no such place but I tell them there is. The young man looks despairing. Again he will have to waste time, money and energy looking for the place. We go to the DCO at the checkpoint of Bethlehem. At the tunnel checkpoint we ask the soldiers about the closure. A soldier warns the woman soldier that she is forbidden to speak to us and, when asked, says that we are only allowed to speak to the commander.