Huwwara South

Huwwara south, Thursday 10.2.2005 AMObservers: Nava A. (reporting) Dana S. (photographing) Freezing cold but sunny. First poppies at the roadside. Many changes. The first day at the ckecpoint of the new company. The commander and his men are learning the job, relaxed, friendly and polite. Most of the time they let people through rapidly. Another innovation – pedestrians are not asked to show a permit, only vehicles require one. Few soldiers, the absence of the military policewomen is felt.Checks focus on young women and small children, even three to four year olds. All have to prove that they are registered in their parents’ IDs, which creates delays. The turnstiles are of course not operating.Traffic is different from usual. Today is a festival, the hejeri new year. Groups of visitors arriving by bus create pressure at the entrance to Nablus. Many of the people going through express their hopes for a change in the region and this is reflected in the checkpoint policy. But as if to refute this a contractor’s team arrives to install metal gates on the detainees area. Detainees were dealt with relatively fast.A problem with the car of a Save the Children employee which required DCO intervention in order to enable her to go through to Nablus.On the way back we saw that the unannounced checkpoint set up this morning at the entrance to Yitzhar had been removed. At Tapuah junction a long line of vehicles waiting.