'Azzun 'Atma, Thu 17.7.08, Afternoon

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We arrived at 17.30 and the previous shift had left an hour and a half previously. A taxi driver said that the passage was very slow after that and asked us to come. Many people stop us to say that Sunday was terrible and that the soldiers were animals, had beaten people and cursed.
 
There are 5 detainees in the shed who are freed when we arrived and until we left no more people were detained.  The soldier checks the parcels on the ground and orders the man to spread the contents out and at the end throws the ID at his feet. One man says the soldier spat at him and said to him that he been 30 years of age and not 45 he would have punched him. Once again the parcels are checked in the dirt and every now and again the woman soldier starts screaming. She grabs to shirt of one man and said<, "I will tear you apart." What are you whispering. I asked your age. What he looks as if he is 16? Ask the soldiers.

A couple from the villages who are originally from Gaza and have 10 children have lived in the village for 15 years. Until 5 month ago they had been given temporary permits as they cannot change their address but now they can not get them at the DCO. The mother with two children is detained for half an hour. They speak to the soldiers and show all the papers they have and in the end the soldiers let them through for the last time.
 

The checking area is operated by the soldiers from afar. They go through fences to a window which has a small slit where they leave the ID and then go left to a heavy door with a knob which then opens. They go under the x-ray device, a room which is three by three and the baggage is screened. Then they get the ID from another windows and then wait for the door to open and exit.  It is not here that people are beaten but in a room behind the sentry tower.

We left at 18.52