South Hebron Hills Sunday 3.10.04 AM Watchers: Anat B, Elena L (reporting) We left Shoket at 6:30 and returned there at 9:50The New CP near the turn-off to Sinsana- it is becoming ever more solidly established. It is placed precisely on the green line. The old CP at Shim’a is completely dismantled.We saw a truck in a field near Samoa trying to find a way through the dirt barriers raised along the edge of route 60. On the way to Dura on route 60 we saw schoolchildren walking away from Dura towards Beersheva. It isn’t clear to us where they go to school.Dura – al Fawwar crossing- The gates on both sodes of the crossing are closed to vehicles, There were 3 soldiers on the Dura side and there was heavy pedestrian traffic in both directions. The three soldiers checked the ID of some of those entering Dura ( women were not checked). The checking was rapid. There were no detainees. When we arried a ellow Palestinian taxi stood before the closed gate to Dura having come from route 60. The driver was trying to persuade the soldiers to open the gate. We heard a soldier sahying to the driver : ” I am under orders not to open the gate. You know that you cant come through here”. The drover told us that he had was domiciled in Dura and that he had driven from Bethlehem to Tarqumiya village yesterday , but today everything was closed there. We ranf DCO Hebron and Alex said he should drive to Ras Al Jura CP( the humanitarian gate), and if his ID said he was a residentr of Dura they would let him through there. The driver didn’t want to go into Hebron and he was afraind that in any case they would not let him through. Alex very kindly allowed us to give the driver his phone number and said that if the driver met with any problems at Ras al Jura he should phone Alex himself.7:30 The southern entrance to bani Na’im is openShiyukh- Hebron crossing (the girls’ school) : There were no soldiers there and the taxi drivers said said there had not been any before we arrived. The crossing is open to pedestrians and a lot of high school girls were coming from Dura, Many of them said hello to us.Ras al Jura CP – the humanitarian gate: The gate was closed and only one car was waiting to be checked. We decided to continue to Idhna and stop at the CP on the way back.Halhul-Hebron bridge- the bridge was open to pedestrians and there was a lot of traffic . That explained why we had seen relatively little pedestrian traffic on the alternative crossings (over route 35) before coming to the bridge .There were no soldiers to be seen on the bridge but apparently there was one in the pillbox. No one tried to get us to leave the bridge. The ascent to the bridge from route 35 is open but any car would be stopped by the barriers on the bridge. The dirt barriers raised along the edge of the ascent to the bridge are new.8:05 Idhna CP: The gate was open . It was impossible to to see if the pillbox was manned . There were no soldiers in the gorunf by the gate.The checkpoint on route 3536 which goes under route 35 a little beyond the Halhul- Hebron bridge. This road is in Area A and links Beit Kahil village (west of Halhul) to Hebron. When we passed there at 8:00 we had seen that there was a CP under route 35 and many Palestinians were waiting to be allowed through. There were also many vehicles of every description waiting to be checked. We didn’t stop then, but on the way back from Idhna we got out of the car in order to observe what was going on below at this CP.Two soldiers stood above the CP on route 35 covering for the soldiers doing the checking below. One of them asked us if we were from MW and replied politely to our questions. He said that residents of Beit Kahil or of Hebron were allowed through the CP, as were also humanitarian cases. On the Halhul and Beit Kahil side there were about 70 people bunched together –men women and children ( also women carryihg babies) – all of them waiting to be checked. When we arrived the Palestinians were standing about 20 meters from the soldiers ( this distance was maintained throughout) and were not being called to come forward for inspection. But immediately afterwards they began to be checked at a reasonable pace. It took one little girl whom we had seen arrive ten minutes to get through –possibly our presence helped to speed things up. The soldier doing the checking called to the Palestinians to approach one by one. A Palestinian man acted as organizer, since the Palestinians did not form a queue. We didn’t see anyone turned back or any detainees. We left at 8:45. Pedestrians and vehicles kept on arriving from both directions. Anat took photos of the biggest crowd of Palestinians –on the northern side of the tunnel under route 35. we couldn’t understand why these people did not prefer to get to the Halhul- Hebron bridge only 200 meters from there. They must have known that passage across it fro pedestrians was unhindered today.8:45 : a little after the alternative crossings between HAlhul and Hebron there was a flying CP on route 35. There were no detainees.Ras AL Jura CP – the humanitarian gate- It was manned by 3 soldiers. About 10 vehicles (including trucks) on either side of the gate were waiting to get through. The pace of inspection was very slow when we arrived – but it should be noted in favor of the soldiers that they let through two ambulances with flashing lights which arrived from the Hebron side at once (after the briefest of inspections).Zif junction : The gate is closed . There were no pedestrians.A little before the abandoned Yakinton CP on route 317 –we saw 6 empty trucks athwart the dirt barriers edging the Yatta side of the road. Apparenty their drivers had been caught trying to exit onto the main (apartheid) road and their car keys had been confiscated. A few yards after the last lorry we sawan army jeep, with a lot of antennas sticking out of it, parked on the road. When we approached to ask the soldiers about the lorries, the jeep began to move off at speed and went past us with the soldiers in it regarding us with absolutely closed faces.At-Tuwani: the entrance to Yatta from the village is still closed.A CP manned by the BP and the army is on the turn-off to Arad (from route 60) near Mahane Yatir. There were no detainees.