Huwwara
Huwwara 15 January 2006 Watchers: Yael B., and Ditza Y (reporting)The separation is in full blast.Za’atra Junction7.35 a.m.15 vehicles, waiting to go east, are queuing to be checked.From the direction of Huwwara there are few vehicles. A lorry driver carrying goods to be loaded on to another lorry nearby, something he says he used to do on a daily basis, is not allowed to cross and is he forced to retrace his tracks together with his load.A student, a resident of Tulkarm, studying at Al Kuds is not permitted to cross.The soldier checking, Or, is an Arabic speaker who behaves humanely and with a will to help the Palestinians. A social worker from Tubas who works in a home for the mentally disabled in Jericho is not allowed to cross at first, but the soldier listens to him, takes additional documents from him, runs from the Palestinian to the roadblock commander and back until finally the Palestinian is permitted to cross.Huwwara8:00 a.m.There are some 70 people in the turnstiles.Shouts are heard from the area of the magnometers. What we managed to hear was: What are you laughing about?! Then we saw three youths taken out of the turnstiles near the magnometers, a soldier pushes one of them aggressively in his chest and throws his coat angrily over the turnstiles accompanied by an order: Ruch! Get out! We were unable to get to the youths who were sent back to Nablus.Two women: one elderly and one young woman with a baby of about a year in her arms, a little girl of two and half years of age (we found out later) and a young girl of 12, wait quietly by the roadblock. They did not approach us and we thought they were waiting for someone who is about to come through the turnstile.About 9:00 a.m.Hossam from the D.C.O. arrives at the roadblock. He addresses the waiting women. Apparently they are from Hebron, but as the young woman’s husband is from Jenin they are not allowed to cross to Hebron. Hossam made a few phone calls, probably about the women, and left before we could approach him and find out what is happening.There is no ‘Gorman’ at the roadblock. Those exiting from Nablus by car are forced to tip the contents of their bags on to an improvised stand to be checked.A teacher from Jenin who works in Ramallah is not permitted to cross to go to work. We ask him for his details, explain that we are trying to take the problem of people not being allowed to go from the north of the West Bank to the south to court. He listens, gives us his name and seems to hesitate to give further details, he says: I will come back in five minutes, and returns to Nablus. It is not a surprise that they find it difficult to believe in us, we are, after all, a part of the people who have occupied their land and abused them.9:10 a.m.The women with the children are allowed to continue on their way. We approach R., the roadblock commander and ask whether they will be allowed to cross at Za’atra. The answer: I hope so.9:30 a.m.His answer did not satisfy us and we drove to Za’atra roadblock to find out if the women and their children had crossed. The soldiers could not tell us.Beit Furiq10:00 a.m.All is quiet; the traffic of both people and vehicles is light. The soldiers’ attitude towards the Palestinians is humane.Awarta10:30 a.m.The roadblock is closed. Palestinians we met nearby tell us that there are soldiers in the village.Huwwara10:35 a.m.There are about 40 people in the turnstiles.There are two young men who want to exit Nablus to visit friends in Huwwara but they are not permitted to do so.There is one detainee in the lock-up. He intended to go to Aricha meanwhile he is being checked.11:10 a.m.We leave the roadblock.
Huwwara
See all reports for this place-
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)
.
Shoshi AnbarMay-18-2025Huwara: The old houses in Area C
-