PM
HUWWARA, Thursday 3 June 2004 PMObservers: Michal B’A., Ofra T., Sara H. (reporting)color=red>There were about 30 people waiting at the checkpoint, and five detainees. We were told that a large group of detainees had just been released. Three women, two infants and three little girls of between four and seven were waiting with the detainees. They said they’d been waiting an hour-and-a-half. They lived in Chicago and had no Israeli or Palestinian ID cards. The husband of one of the women was in Nablus, while the second had to reach Nablus to buy things for her wedding. After our intercession, the soldier at the checkpoint told them that since their visas had lapsed, he needed to obtain confirmation from the District Co-ordinating Office (DCO) [the army section that deals with civilian matters and usually has representatives at the checkpoints ostensibly to ease the lot of the Palestinians] in order to let them through, particularly since two of them had no visas for entry into Area A. of the Palestinian Authority . He said it could take a few hours. They decided to return to the village where they’d been staying. The soldier didn’t get an answer all day, despite our pressure. At 17:00, when a DCO officer arrived, we asked him about the case, and he said they couldn’t go through.The number of detainees increased, because, by 17:00, nobody had been released. It had only been at 15:40, when there were 20 of them , that the soldiers had decided it was time to check the ID details with the General Security Services (GSS) [also known by its Hebrew acronym as the Shabak or Shin Bet; the checkpoint soldiers phone in the detainees’ ID details to the GSS which has a central listing against which these are checked to weed out security suspects, not until clearance comes back are the detainees released and their ID cards returned to them]. Among them were a man whose son had been taken that morning to Rafidiya hospital,to whioch the man was rushing in order to sign his consent to surgery (he was further detained because his constant efforts to explain his situation to the soldiers were interpreted as unruly conduct); a man with an appointment for a medical examination (with a private physician); a 17-year-old boy who’d been waiting since 10:00 am; and three fathers with three-to-five-year-old children.The attitude towards the detainees was shocking (in addition to the fact that there was no water and no shade…). The checkpoint commander (A.) harassed them whenever they tried to stand in the shade. He humiliated them and forced them to sit on the ground. Anyone who tried to talk to him was shoved, shouted at and threatened with a weapon. Those who tried to stand in the shade were mostly the fathers with young children, and several were attacked by the commander, which made the children cry.Ambulances were treated the same way as cars and waited between 10 minutes and half-an-hour. The DCO officer who arrived at 17.00 was almost useless.Huwwara North (Ofra and Sara reporting):Throughout our watch there were between 30 and 50 detainees, a few were released from time to time, but the core remained. The soldiers didn’t listen to us and no progress was made. One of the women soldiers was particularly arrogant. A driver with a blue [Israeli] ID card who was carrying wheat to Nablus was detained till the police arrived at the exit from Nablus. When we telephoned the police, it transpired that they knew nothing about the case. He was eventually let through after we brought pressure to bear.A young man who’d lost his ID card wanted to leave Nablus. He had some kind of paper confirming that he’d lost it. As a punishment, his car was confiscated for four days, and since he had no ID number, the soldiers wrote down a description of what he was wearing, and told him to come to the checkpoint every day in the same clothes.
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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Ronit Dahan-RamatiAug-24-2026Huwara: The school on the outskirts of town and an outpost hidden among the trees
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