Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked, Ya'bed-Dotan
07:05 Shaked-Tura
Gates are open and passage has begun. According to people there "Today the girls (soldiers) work well". But when the DCO officer arrives, passage slows down because he insists that only one person at a time goes through the turnstile.
A contractor who also picks up workers at the Barta'a gate tells us that there, too, at times of heavy crowding, people go through the turnstile one at a time with a few minutes' spacing between them. We tried talking with the manager on site but he wasn't there.
07:45 Ya'abed-Dotan checkpoint
There are no soldiers yet and traffic moves freely.
Beautiful wild flowers on the side of the road.
08:00 Barta'a-Reihan checkpoint
The carpark area is loaded with vehicles so we went down to the checkpoint on foot. We met Hadi, celebrating his brand new car. He used to own a coffee and sweets kiosk and now he cleans the checkpoint. It seems that at times we exaggerate in our concern for people who can in fact take care of themselves.
Here too we are told that in the morning, when many people go through, they insist on letting people pass the turnstile one at a time, thus forming a longer line.
At this time there are fewer people and we timed 20 minutes for a person to cross the terminal from one end to the other.