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HUWWARA and BEIT FURIK, Wednesday 21 April 2004 AMObservers: Michal S., Hanna A., Shalva C., Naomi L., Orit B. (reporting) color=red>08:15 — HuwwaraThere were about 15 young male detainees at each side of the checkpoint who told us they had been waiting so far a maximum of two hours . The line moved quickly, the soldiers were mostly polite. The exception to that was the remark by one : “What’s all this, a whore house?” — and that was when he became suspicious of one of the young Palestinians who gave him his friend’s identity card by mistake; nevertheless the soldier let him through. A young woman from the newspaper al-Jazira told us she goes through every day but had never noticed us before. She said she thought her smooth passage was connected with our presence. 09:00 — Beit FurikWhen we arrived, the checkpoint was at a total standstill. Closure. No traffic. The soldiers were trying to find out what the orders were as regards who could go through . It took them 20 minutes to come back to work and even then those in the eastern position were not sure who was to be allowed through. Fifty people were waiting at the entrance, some had been there four hours. Young people due to take university examinations had not been allowed through for three days.An elderly woman with a child, who was carrying pigeons , apparently for sale in Nablus, was refused the first time. We advised her to await clarification of the orders and the second time she did indeed go through.Among those waiting was a truck driver carrying domestic cleaning materials to Jenin and Tulkarm who hadn’t been allowed through for three days. The previous day the soldiers had torn up his dispatch document.One of the drivers had been held back for four days.The trucks waiting to be checked were in a small area near the checkpoint. One driver told us that five days ago his son, who had been scalded by spilt hot milk, was denied entry for treatment in Nablus.11:00 – En route to Beit Iba, by the entrance to the Bar-On industrial park, there was an unannounced road block.On the right hand side of the road, among the bushes, sat four soldiers eating breakfast. On the other side were about 70 men, sitting and waiting. The soldiers finished their meal, stopped every vehicle, took all passengers off passing buses (most of whom had already waited and been checked and passed through the checkpoint at Beit Iba). Everyone who didn’t “look right” (to their minds) was detained for an ID card check, whether because they came from what are seen as “hostile” Palestinian villages or just because the soldiers didn’t like their faces. Roulette!Some of the men had been waiting two hours, including the village head and a member of the council at Asira-ash -Shmaliya. Some had left home at 06:00 and were still en route. When we asked the soldiers to check which of them could be released, they said they were waiting for permission to release them all together and send them off on a passing bus. We think it was due to our presence that they began to release a few. We got no answer to our call from the army’s “humanitarian” centre. The District Coordinating Office (DCO)[ the section of the army that deals with civilian matters] told us they were dealing with the problem. But no DCO representative arrived while we were there.On our way we passed the road up to [the Jewish settlement of] Yitzhar, where young settlers had blocked the road, set up a tent and were throwing stones at Palestinian cars. On the way back there was a police presence there, but we still saw children standing at a distance and aiming stones at passing cars.
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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