Barta'a checkpoint: great difficulty in crossing in the morning
15:00 - 16:20
Anin Agricultural Checkpoint - 15:00 - Although the opening time is around 16:00, about 15 people and a tractor are already waiting. They tell us that about 70 people left this morning and that more permits have recently been issued. The soldiers guarding the checkpoint are there 24/7, but the soldiers who open the checkpoint only arrived at 16:00 and all passed within five minutes.
Barta'a checkpoint - The parking lots on the Palestinian side are loaded with vehicles. Here, too, we are under the impression that more workers are now passing through this checkpoint than in the past, thanks to the issuance of new permits. At the goods inspection station, 4 trucks loaded with goods destined for Barta'a are still entering at this time.
Hundreds of workers and several seamstresses arrive in many vehicles and move quickly to the West Bank. Some of them stop to tell us about the morning’s events: Today the checkpoint opened only at 4:30 (after having opened at 4:00 for a couple of days to overcome the terrible pressure), and despite the large size of the huddled awaiting crowd they were put into the terminal four by four. They further claimed that military vehicles pass through the security road - precisely during this time of pressure - causing the checkpoint’s gates
to close every few minutes. This conduct creates delays that cause many workers to miss their rides and return home having lost a day’s work.
Young people (students?) And workers who go to work on a second shift cross the checkpoint from the West Bank to the seam zone.
Tura checkpoint - 16.00 - After repairing the breach, the tent erected in front of it with the two soldiers 24/7 was removed. Now the two soldiers are stationed inside the checkpoint only at night, when the checkpoint is closed to traffic for residents of the seam area.
Workers return from work in the seam area - in the settlements and villages of the area. 3 Palestinian cars pass from the West Bank. In the shed, a resident of Anin (near the Anin checkpoint) is waiting for a ride to work - he has a permit