Huwwara south and north, Beit FurikTue. 4.1.05 AMObservers: Yona A, Nurit V, Ninette B, Aharona M, Etti P (reporting)8:00 As soon as we arrived, a young man came over and told us in broken English that people were not being allowed out of three villages: Asira, Burtin and Madama. He showed us several girls who had come from there, and said that south of the checkpoint by the righthand turnoff there was a Hummer blocking the exit. To our surprise the girls went through without problems so that we couldn’t understand why the village was closed off. When we asked, the sergeant commanding the checkpoint said that the villages were not closed and people who were OK were allowed to leave.No detainees and no line and the very sparse traffic going through without problems, some of the older people passing without even handing over IDs. The military policemen are relaxed and quiet and so are the other soldiers.A student from An-Najah is detained for a few minutes because his ID looks suspicious to the sergeant but after a short time is sent to the north checkpoint for computer checking. This is a display of trust since nobody there will stop him since they don’t know what he looks like.A truck with oxygen cylinders wants to enter Beit Furik and the driver thinks his permit has lapsed. The soldier tells him it is still valid and he goes through.A sick man in a taxi who wants to drive to the othr side asks the sergeant for permission. The sergeant transfers him to another taxi which already has a passenger who can’t walk far. An Israeli car with passengers with Italian passports from the CISS wants to enter and the sergeant directs them to the north checkpoint for checking by an officer.Beit FurikAlmost no people and cars and no detainees.At the entrance to Burin four soldiers are checking a line of cars exiting the vllages and several vehicles entering it. Our presence causes tension at first but when we tell the soldiers we only want to see what’s going on and record it, they relax. They say anyone can enter or leave but that all IDs must be checked because there is an alert which has lasted three days.One man was standing beside the commander who was conveying his ID by phone. All the rest went through without problems after being checked by the soldiers who were looking for a certain ID number or name.