PM
HUWWARA, Tuesday April 26 2004 PM ( Independence Day Eve)Observers: Maki S., Biria., Petachia., Anat D. (reporting) colour = red>13:25 — There was very little movement at the Qalqiliya checkpoint. Vehicles passed through with relative ease.Huwwara south Because today was Memorial Day for the dead of Israel’s wars, there was no transfer of merchandise, not even for holders of trading permits. They were allowed through, but without the merchandise. There was no officer or representative of the army’s District Coordinating Office (DCO) [ the section of the army that handles civilian matters]. Traffic went smoothly, detainees waited only a short time to receive permission to go through the checkpoint. The soldiers were friendly both towards the Palestinians and towards us. At 15:30 a new shift took over the checkpoint and there was a noticeable change for the worse in the soldiers’ attitudes (at both northern and southern ends).Huwwara north Pedestrian traffic was processed at an acceptable speed, but the number of detainees grew constantly. Nobody was released during the time we were there. There were 12 when we arrived and 20 when we left, including a man with a sick baby (who was eventually released).Unlike in Huwwara south, here a net was stretched over the area where the detainees were sitting. All our attempts to expedite the passage permits was met with refusal on the pretext that a certain device wasn’t working or that the Shin Bet [Israel security services] were working slowly.Two noteworthy cases: Two young women were detained because it was claimed that they had tried to slip through by evading the checkpoint. As a result of our intervention, they were released after 20 minutes. A car bearing the logo of a humanitarian organization for children was detained because it was carrying toys. The driver was a woman doctor, and the soldier told her that “children can live without toys for two days”. He agreed to let her through on condition that she left the toys in Nablus till after Independence Day. She went back in the direction from which she had come and we don’t know if she eventually returned without the toys.We fnished our watch with a sense of frustration, mainly because of the attitude of the soldiers in the second shift, who displayed no readiness to talk to us or to lessen the number of detainees. It was clear that they would let them wait there until the checkpoint closed.
Huwwara
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The Huwwara checkpoint is an internal checkpoint south of the city of Nablus, at the intersection of Roads 60 and 5077 (between the settlements of Bracha and Itamar). This checkpoint was one of the four permanent checkpoints that closed on Nablus (Beit Furik and Awarta checkpoints to the east and the Beit Iba checkpoint to the west). It was a pedestrian-only barrier. As MachsomWatch volunteers, we watched therre since 2001 two shifts a day - morning and noon, the thousands of Palestinians leaving Nablus and waiting for hours in queues to reach anywhere else in the West Bank, from the other side of the checkpoint the destination could only be reached by public transport. In early June 2009, as part of the easing of Palestinian traffic in the West Bank, the checkpoint was opened to vehicular traffic. The passage was free, with occasional military presence in the guard tower. Also, there were vehicle inspections from time to time. Since the massacre on 7.10.2023, the checkpoint has been closed to Palestinians.
On February 26, 2023, about 400 settlers attacked the town's residents for 5 hours and set fire to property, such as houses and cars. Disturbances occurred in response to a shooting of two Jewish residents of Har Bracha by a Palestinian Terrorist. The soldiers stationed in the town did not prevent the arson and rescued Palestinian families from their homes only after they were set on fire. No one was punished and Finance Minister Smotrich stated that "the State of Israel should wipe out Hawara." Left and center organizations organized solidarity demonstrations and support actions for the residents of Hawara.Hawara continued to be in the headlines in all the months that followed: more pogroms by the settlers, attacks by Palestinians and a massive presence of the army in the town. It amounted to a de facto curfew of commerce and life in the center of the city. On October 5, 2023, MK Zvi established a Sukkah in the center of Hawara and hundreds of settlers backed the army blocked the main road and held prayers in the heart of the town all night and the next day. On Saturday, October 7, 23 The "Swords of Iron" war began with an attack by Hamas on settlements surrounding Gaza in the face of a poor presence of the IDF. Much criticism has been made of the withdrawal of military forces from the area surrounding Gaza and their placement in the West Bank, and in the Hawara and Samaria region in particular, as a shield for the settlers who were taking over and rioting.
On November 12, 2023, the first section of the Hawara bypass road intended for Israeli traffic only was opened. In this way, the settlers can bypass the road that goes through the center of Hawara, which is the main artery for traffic from the Nablus area to Ramallah and the south of the West Bank. For the construction of the road, the Civil Administration expropriated 406 dunams of private land belonging to Palestinians from the nearby villages. The settlers are not satisfied with this at the moment, and demand to also travel through Hawara itself in order to demonstrate presence and control.(updated November 2023)
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