Rihan, Shaked, Sunday, November 5, 2006, AMObservers: Lea R. and Hana H. (reporting)7:05–9:10Shaked, 7:05 – 7:30 It’s raining and very few people go through the gate on both sides. No unusual events.Rihan, 7:35 – 9:10 We are told that the pedestrian gate was opened at 05:10 and about 100 people had gone through. At this time traffic is sparse on both sides, and average passage time is 5 minutes.At the vehicle inspection post there is one vehicle loaded with merchandise which is under inspection and 4 other cars are parked in line.People tell us that yesterday (Saturday) which was a nice day, weather wise, the checkpoint was opened only at 7:30 while many people had waited since the early hours of the morning.We argued with the commander on site for 15 minutes, asking him to allow us to drive our car to the lower parking lot on the Palestinian side so that we could unload the bags of clothing we had brought. He finally agreed that we’d go as far as the yellow gate only.In the car park area there were people from Arabe, holding American passports, who were on their way to the airport. Following inquiries they were sent to Jalama.