Huwwara
Huwwara. 21 June 2005 Watchers: Karin L., (a Parisian student doing a project on the roadblocks) Rachel A. (reporting) Tapuach Junction. 7:30 a.m.About 15 cars on each side.Huwwara roadblock. A relaxed day. The officer C., and the D.C.O. representative A., inspire a relaxed and businesslike atmosphere. The soldiers are polite and efficient. During the first two hours they check the I.D. cards of all those entering Nablus. This causes pressure from time to time. When I asked, I was told that there is a warning about a terrorist. From time to time the buses leaving Nablus stop in unauthorised places and then the passengers have to clamber over concrete obstacles a metre high in order to get to the checkpoint. The men jump over but the women take the long way round. I pointed this out and the officer promised to deal with it and actually made a telephone call in relation to it, but it happened over and over again.A number of cases where people did not have the necessary permit to cross: the representative of a Jordanian bank, Jordanian citizens who wished to enter Nablus, a car and a van with a crew who claimed to be on the way to carry out vaccinations in Huwwara. After some 15 minutes the problem was solved.10:30 a.m.Two youths are detained. It is not clear why one is detained (he is released an hour later). The second is the son of an informer with an Israeli I.D. card, who lives in Hadera. According to him he has come to visit his sick mother in Nablus. An hour later the police come and take him away. A 13 year old girl, an American citizen who is on a visit to her grandmother in Beit Furiq, wants to extend her stay by a week. At the airport her 3-month visa has been cancelled, apparently because she declared that she is here for just a week. After many attempts to help her we spoke to the American consulate in Jerusalem and they simply advised her to ignore it and stay the extra week on the premise that there would be no problem when she wants to go back to the USA. Sounds logical.11:15 a.m.Jit Junction. A snap roadblock, 8 cars are in the queue.
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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Shoshi AnbarMay-18-2025Huwara: The old houses in Area C
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