Huwwara
Huwwara, Sunday 21.1.07 PMObservers: Galit G., Tal H., Judit B., Noa P., Naomi L. (reporting)At Tapuach Junction, no waiting vehicle lines in either direction.At Yitzhar Junction – no checkpoint. The concrete slabs in the middle of the road remind all and sundry who the occupier is and what he might do at any given moment. Like the Palestinians, we too breathe relieved when we pass the non-checkpoint today.At Huwwara CP – commander: G. No DCO representative.Construction work is presently in full swing. Layers of ground sandstone have already been laid and pressed on the ground and piles of sand await their turn. We are told that a t e r m i n a l is being erected here in the State of Israel’s glorious name.Our very eyes witness where it is that money goes that should be pouring into public health, education, welfare… At our meeting with him, the Deputy Minister of Defense Sneh (in charge of all Palestinians in the West Bank) that this terminal is “for the sake of the Palestinians, so they would not have to be exposed to rain an sun, not stand like corralled cattle…” He then clearly stated that this is all for the Jewish colonists, their security, their life texture, their roads – This is the operational mission of the Northern West Bank Brigade.The cold bites, the wind chills bones to the marrow. At the empty detainees’ pen a young woman sits with her two tiny toddlers, holding a baby wrapped in a wool blanket, waiting in the freezing cold for over an hour for her husband after crossing the CP through the special side line for women and the elderly.Three pedestrian checking posts are active. Young me coming through tell us they’ve “only waited one hour, today’s good”. The studies at universities are out for a break and therefore no extra pressure of students, which we usually witness every Sunday.Next to the soldiers’ latrine stands a group of Palestinian Israeli citizens who entered Nablus and now the CP commander has no idea what he should do about them. Among them are a few small children with their mother, who have come to visit their father who resides in Nablus. Everyone is shivering with cold. After about an hour, the commander hands them back their IDs and explains they should call the army’s Central Regional Command to regulate their entry permits. When they ask for the phone number, he tells them to call information… We gave them the numbers of the public appeals officer (Shiran), knowing that their chances to receive proper permits are close to nothing. The next such group was sent directly to us by the commander, so we’d tell them what to do. “They (we…) know best.”The side line is open all the time, the women MPs work in total silence. Men are not required to strip but only take off their belt when the magnetometers bleep excessively. A soldier chases a man who had forgotten his umbrella and gives it back to him. All turnstiles are functioning.Commander G. – first and foremost humane – is on the alert at all times to keep the side line open for women children and the elderly, to keep the vehicle checks going, to conduct as short checks as possible, and hands his soldiers plastic sacks, sending them to collect garbage from the compound. Indeed the lines are short today and the checks relatively swift. No shouting!A soldier tells Noa: “Without this checkpoint, we would not have a State.”
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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