BEIT IBA, HUWWARA, BEIT FURIK, Monday 24 May 20004 PMObservers: Meki S., Noya A., Maya K. (reporting), Denise (a journalist), Sichi (a photographer from Tsomet Hasharon ) color=red>In brief: There were no unannounced roadblocks; at all three checkpoints, traffic was relatively sparse and flowed well. There were only a few detainees. A very strange day! The Jit checkpoint. which we checked en route, was deserted.Beit Iba at 13:15 showed a checkpoint at which passage was smooth and relaxed, with few people using it (some said this was because of the mourning in Nablus for the death/killing of three Nablus residents). There was a long line of trucks (about 15), but it was moving forward.By the time we left, three detainees were being checked [their ID card details were sent by phone to a central point where they are cross-checked against a list compiled and maintained by the General Security Services — also known by its Hebrew acronym as the Shabak or Shin Bet; the check can take between 20 minutes and several hours]. The reservists on duty here created a relaxed atmosphere, to which new shade netting over both sides of the checkpoint contributed. At Huwwara South there were no detainees when we arrived, but when we left there were six youngsters who had left Nablus in the morning by going around the checkpoint — and that was why they were now detained. The ground was being straightened at the detainees’ ditch. Huwwara North: Here we found three students detained on their way from Nablus to Burka; they were released shortly after we arrived. Traffic was not heavy and it flowed steadily. Off to one side stood five taxis and a truck , confiscated for four days. (According to S., of the District Coordinating Office (DCO) [the army section that attends to civilian matters and usually has representatives at the checkpoints, ostensibly to alleviate the lot of the Palestinians], these vehicles had disturbed the whole vehicular line and the ambulances; but in simpler words, they had been confiscated in punishment for crossing the soldiers’ stop line .Balata Checkpoint: This stands at the beginning of the road between Huwwara checkpoint and Beit Furik, a little east of the DCO . It is a back-to-back checkpoint–[i.e. trucks arrive from both sides, off-load their cargoes and then reload them on to the trucks coming from the opposite side, so that no truck drives straight through the checkpoint and thus from one area of the occupied territories to another — and all this in the name of security]. There was a vast convoy of trucks waiting in line. We didn’t stay.Beit Furik: There were few people here and no detainees. In the field beside the checkpoint were some 10 taxis and vans and about five cars, all confiscated from their Palestinian owners because they had driven on roads forbidden to them [ and reserved for the use of Jewish Israeli settlers], or through fields.