Jubara, Irtah, Thursday PM, March 16, 2006 Watchers: Shlomit K., Rachel H. (reporting)Jubara15:10 – the checkpoint is deserted, except for a small group of people on their way back. There’s no one being detained [i.e. for security checks].15:20 – We drove to the Schoolchildren’s Gate, which was closed. From that position we observed the checkpoint on road 574 – a silent spot of suffering. There was a queue of around 10 vehicles from the south. We followed one taxi and the duration of its wait was around 15 minutes. From the north we saw a queue of around 20 cars which didn’t appear to move, but when we checked later we didn’t see any traffic jam on the Road 557 underpass. There were few pedestrians.15:30 – by the checkpoint at the entrance to Khirbat Jubara there were three detainees. The soldiers said that there’s a “closure” in effect and that’s why traffic is sparse. There was a queue of about 7 vehicles from east to west and inspection time was around a minute per car. Two ambulances, a UN vehicle, and a small number of cars crossed from the direction of Tulkarm. We drove on road 557 all the way to Safarin and saw almost no other cars.16:10 – we returned to Jubara. Two women from Irtah, familiar to us from a previous watch shift, are waiting for the money transferred to them every month. There are 10 detained individuals who say they’ve been waiting for around a quarter of an hour. Six of them were released at 16:30. Three more detainees joined them, among them a man from the village of Jamel with a permit, who was nonetheless delayed because of the closure [i.e. passage restricted by geographic locations, regardless of passage permits]. He claimed that his son is in a hospital in Tulkarm. He was finally let go at 16:40 with his two companions. The two soldiers report the detainees’ ID numbers immediately and let them go when confirmation is received. All the detainees were released at 16:45 and then we left.Efraim Gate 16:55 – completely emptyIrtah17:00 – four buses came to the parking lot; these are organized transportation arrangements, dropping off Palestinians who came to visit relatives in Israeli prisons.