Habla, Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim), Te'enim Crossing, Mon 25.10.10, Afternoon

13:30 Habla –

The gate is open. Two Palestinian youngsters pass next to us while we leave the car, and ask us smilingly "do you need help? Anything?". Pedestrians pass the gate in the direction of Israel, as well as wagon-drivers  who transport vegetables in carts hitched to horses, and cars. The soldiers at the gate check the papers of the car and wagon drivers but send the pedestrians to be checked in a building on the side. One of the pedestrians comes out and asks: "where is Dalia?"

14:00 Palama

-  we entered the village of Azoun, passed through Gyius and reached Palama. We are told that the gate here is open permanently. The gate was indeed open, and soldiers sat and drank there, but we didn't see any Palestinians passing through the gate.

This is the olive harvest season. In the afternoon we didn't see the harvesters, but the olive oil smell accompanied us all the time, in addition to the smell of the Za'atar which grown in well-groomed fields.

14:30 The Fig Passage –

The soldier at the gate makes Nadim talk, hears the accent and begins to investigate him: "where are you from?" The soldiers requests to see Nadim's ID card. Then he turns to us, asks us where we are from and  waves us on.

15:00 Irtah - 

Few people arrive at the CP from the direction of Israel and disappear in the building.