Northern checkpoints: Soldiers guard every breach in the fence

15:20 – Route 611

We drove from the junction with Route 596 that descends to Barta’a Checkpoint to the entrance to West Barta’a and back.    We didn’t see any breaches in the fence or soldiers guarding them.  We clearly saw that changes had taken place here.  There were no cars parked on the sides of the road or vehicles parked beneath the village of Luxor.  No one was walking from the fence to the road and no one was walking along the security road.  The entrance to East Barta’a was deserted and there were no cars parked there.

15:35 – Barta’a Reihan Checkpoint, Seamline Zone Side

An armored police vehicle was parked next to the shed where people wait.   There was a crowd gathered around watching as a policeman issued a fine to one of the Palestinian drivers who did not have his seat belt fastened.   A few transport vehicles were parked in the upper parking lot.  There were relatively few workers returning from work in Israel or in the Seamline Zone, perhaps because of the hour or because of Ramadan.

15:50 – Tura – Shaked Checkpoint

The breach in the fence next to the village of Tura was still there. However, no one was crossing through it while the checkpoint was open and the soldiers were present.     Two people arrived in a car and crossed on foot to the West Bank.  One of them spoke Hebrew and told us that since the terrorist attacks one week ago no one had crossed through the breach in the fence.  

We called M. the tractor driver from "Anin whom we know,  who was not going to work today.  He told us that a lot of people would cross through the checkpoint today and that the checkpoint would open from 15:55 – 16:10.

16:00 – 'Anin Checkpoint

Soldiers were guarding the breach in the fence.  Military police  and soldiers from the 50^th battalion of the Nahal were there.   There was a table set up in the shed with dishes and food for the soldiers and a black tent outside.  For about 15 minutes no one crossed.   Two friendly soldiers from the Nahal told us that one or two people occasionally crossed to 'Anin.   The soldiers at the checkpoint left and the soldiers from the Nahal remained to guard the breach in the fence.  One man arrived without his agricultural permit.  The soldiers sent him to wait outside the checkpoint next to us until they found out what to do.  Meanwhile the man told us that yesterday he had crossed because the soldiers were always there.  Evidently there is an advantage to the current situation    He also told us that the soldiers had cots inside the tent.

At 16:30 the soldiers allowed the man to cross and we left.