Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
Tura-Shaked 7:25-7:50
The checkpoint is open, pedestrians and cars cross in both directions. There is no line at the turnstile on the side of the West Bank, and apparently the gate was opened on time at 07:00. Everybody has passes through quickly.
A man tells us that earlier a group of workers with permits was barred from entering the seamline zone. Evidently, if we understand correctly, those are workers with short-term permits. We cannot get any more information since the workers have already left. And as usual, people complain about the gate being opened only at 07:00 even though (especially now, during the olive harvest) they have asked to open it at 05:00. When we leave, all the people have passed through in both directions. Right now, there are no people waiting.
Barta'a-Reihan 8:00-8:30
The checkpoint is crowded as usual – vehicles in the parking lot, pedestrians in the fenced off sleeve leading to the terminal. A short while after our arrival to the entrance of the building, people stopped arriving and there were no lines in front of the open checking posts. Has everybody crossed already? It appears that this is a misunderstanding: quite the opposite, there are many people inside and for some reason the passage is very slow (inside, not at the checking posts). Once in a while the flow of people coming out is renewed. When we ask, they answer that it has taken them an hour(!) to pass through today. They believe it's due to the large number of people.
For various reasons, we have not visited these checkpoints for a month and a half. However, nothing has changed.