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Attempted exit from Nablus - all of our passports checked and bags searched - DENIED EXIT!

So here we are back at the Nablus checkpoint; only this time we are already in Nablus and wanting to leave. Now remember, it was the IDF soldiers at this same checkpoint that denied us entry just two days earlier on the grounds that it was "too dangerous." So here we were ready to leave this "dangerous" place and astonishingly the three soldiers at the checkpoint informed us that "you cannot leave." We asked why and they explained that we should not have been in Nablus as it was dangerous; so we responded by saying "well, now that we are sure that it is dangerous here we want to leave." Their response; "No!"

We were literally being denied exit from Nablus which the IDF soldiers themselves were admitting was extremely dangerous. So we were forced to take the mountain road out of Nablus just as we had entered it. Truly amazing.

I will say that two of three soldiers were quite professional although their orders were totally ridiculous. The third soldier however was a first class power tripping asshole; I can only imagine how this man would act on a raid in a martyrs home.