Irtah-Jubara 13.9.04 AMObservers: Tzvia S, Ronny S, Edna M, Herzliya A (reporting)Irtah (Ronny and Herzliya)6.40 – deserted, a strange sight. Nobody there, no vehicles, the gates locked.Jubara (Tzvia and Edna)6.40 – Many soldiers because of a red alert and proclamation of the area as a closed military area. One of the soldier has a megaphone and uses it to talk to us as well. “The cuties from Machsomwatch are requested to leave.”. Two buses are waiting on one side to transport children to school. They are checked scrupulously, all bags are opened and dogs sniff at them. Edna is anxious to see the buses leave for school and stays there. The others move a little distance away at the request of the soldiers. The buses are permitted to leave after the checking and today, as an exception, they will go through the “school gate” or the “farmers gate” to schools in the nearby villages. Today’s instructions are that vehicles can’t go through and cars from Jubara bringing vegetables and foodstuffs daily from Tulkarm to the village are not allowed through today. Pedestrians permitted to pass are residents of Jubara returning from Tulkarm and a girl studying in Taybeh and living in Tulkarm.Settlers’ cars go through. We are told to obtain a permit if we want to continue on to Beit Iba, We received it at 8.00.Beit Iba. 8.10: A routine day, although we noted that there wee very few cars. A large number of people are waiting in the three lines for Nablus (women, young men, older men). Passage was rapid without special checks.Upon our arrival, we were approached by a young man who complained that the soldiers were refusing entry to doctors from Rafidia hospital in Nablus. One of the doctors – there were four – asked our help. An appeal to the DCO representative produced the logical result and he permitted them to pass.There were 6 detainees in all, who were released after checking. One had been detained as punishment for “sneaking” through, but the commander responded to our request to release him. We also asked him to speed up the checking of a young man on his way to an appointment at the Canadian consulate in Nablus. At the southern checkpoint as well (exit from Kochin) the soldiers did not create unnecessary obstacles. We left at 9.30 approximately.On our way back to Jubara, about 2 kilometers before the entrance to Ramin, we saw an unannounced checkpoint, where several young men were sitting at the roadside, and there were cars with Israeli licence plates. Edna went to check and discovered that they had been detained for ID inspection. She contacted the brigade and the DCO who promised to help. Edna noted down the telephone number of one of the detainees.