Beit Furik
Beit Furik, Saturday 17/6/06 AM Obeservers and Reporting – Noga., Vivy Z., Ruthi A.Translation: Hanna K.8:30-11:30The Beit Furik CP which blocks the passage of the Beit Furik and Beit Dajan inhabitants to Nablus, also blocks the passage of the inhabitants of the valley in the direction of Nablus. Today the matter intensified in front of our eyes, as the soldiers of the CP were given an order, based on security considerations, to cancel the entry and exit of the inhabitants of the valley through the CP. Therefore at 8:30 there were a number of citizens waiting at the CP who, so it became clear, were from the valley. The soldiers, impregnated with the love of their homeland, fulfilled the order obediently and repeatedly said that they were only following orders and that they were not responsible (sounds familiar?). Nablus is the district town for the inhabitants of the valley on the Jericho side, which some of them cannot reach unless they pass through Nablus, and this is how it goes: An inhabitant of Nassara who is prevented from passing through the Hamra CP which is only a few kilometers distant from his home, drives through the most dangerous road called Marka to Beit Furik and from there, through the CP to Nablus, passes through the Huwwara CP to Road No. 60, and proceeds again to Jericho, strewn with numerous road blocks. The security consideration concerning the inhabitants of the valley was lifted during the morning as was reported by the emergency center of the army, but the order did not reach the CP even after many insistent pleadings by us directed at various army divisions, so the obedient soldiers did not renew the passage of the inhabitants of the valley through the CP.The CP commander was prepared to consider only “humanitarian” cases and thus it turns out that “humanitarian” is parallel to the most basic necessities of life, for which a person is required to reach town, such as to reach the registrar of marriages, the dentist, to act as observer at matriculation examinations, to pay a police fine. The Palestinian women from the valley implored the soldiers especially on behalf of their children, and one woman held the badge of Machsom Watch with the name Shula and her telephone number and waved it like an entry ticket at the selector. And thus, somehow, most of the women and elderly people from the valley managed to pass on to Nablus but the number of men who remained and had to wait at the CP even three hours later when we left, and the head of the local council of Nassara in the valley, who was on his way to a convention of heads of local councils at Nablus, and who waited until the time we left , over four hours, said that peace would never come if the CPs and the citizen-rights organizations have no influence at all, and they are not even a drop in the sea.
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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