‘Awarta, ‘Azzun ‘Atma, Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za’tara (Tapuah), Thu 14.5.09, Morning
Translation: Suzanne O.
Azzun Atma
6:50 a.m.
About a dozen people crowd round in front of the gate. They tell us that they have been waiting since 5:45 a.m., and the gate has still not been opened. As soon as we drew near the soldier signalled to the group of women and children waiting to cross, and after them he started to let the waiting Palestinians cross, one at a time. One of the Palestinians tells us that the soldiers are new which is why the crossing at the roadblock takes a long time. It improves from day to day, but it is still very slow.
In the direction of the exit there are about 25 people in the queue. Each time the crossing is in one direction only.
6:56 a.m.
Everyone has crossed from the direction of the village; the soldiers have started to let people cross from the other direction (the exit). Two women and a girl in school uniform arrive at the gate from the direction of the village and are forced to wait for five minutes until the soldier lets them through.
The building works at the roadblock are getting bigger from week to week. Now there is a separate gate to cross from each direction plus a concrete block shelter for the soldiers. A Palestinian who crosses comes over to us and tells us, in fluent Hebrew and with heartbreaking descriptions, about their plight. Every morning he waits at the roadblock at the other side of the village from 5:00 a.m., then he waits at the roadblock here. The second one is the worst according to him. He talks about a feeling of suffocation and about great hardship. Another Palestinian comes over to us and tells us a similar tale. The use of the image of someone suffocating and strangling them is repeated and makes us shiver.
From what we understood the roadblock has become the only crossing to the settlements (which, ironically and painfully, is where they work) for all the villages in the area.
Both of the entrances to Marda are open; Zeita is closed.
Za'atra/Tapuach
7:55 a.m.
There are 20 vehicles in the queue from the direction of Huwwara.
A Border Police jeep is parked at the side of the road, opposite the entrance to Beita.
Huwwara
8:15 a.m.
The car park is almost full but the roadblock is empty. Very few people and vehicles arrive, and they cross immediately. Two vehicles lanes are open and the inspections are carried out quickly.
Awarta
8:30 a.m.
Empty.
Beit Furiq
8:35 a.m.
Empty
Zachariah calls and says that the Border Police jeep opposite Beita is detaining a bus. We drive there.
8:45 a.m.
The soldiers refuse to talk to us; the bus passengers claim that they have been waiting for a long time. The registration no. of the bus is 7-0037-34. We contacted to the humanitarian centre and spoke to Aluma.
8:54 a.m.
The soldier stops another commercial vehicle and after about two minutes lets it go.
8:56 a.m.
The bus is released.
9:05 a.m.
The bus arrives as Za'atra/Tapuach with us following. At Za'atra it is held up for an additional inspection.
We manage to speak to the passengers and find out that they are on their way from Jenin to Ramallah. They left at 6:30 a.m. The journey to Za'atra/Tapuach should take an hour; they have been on the road over two and a half hours. At the previous inspection they waited for an hour, this is now the third inspection they have been through.
9:12 a.m.
A soldier arrives and sees us talking to the Palestinians, he shouts at them to get back on the bus immediately.
9:13 a.m.
The bus is released to go on its way.
We took the driver's telephone number and passed it to Zachariah. Later Zachariah reported to us that the driver and his passengers got to Ramallah at 10:30 a.m.!!!
'Awarta
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Awarta, an internal checkpoint in the heart of the West Bank, is located east of the Hawara checkpoint, at the junction of Roads 555 (which was forbidden for Palestinian traffic in this area) and the entrance road to Nablus. It was one of the four checkpoints that surrounded Nablus until 2009. We used to watch it at Huwwara shifts because it was the only one where goods could be transferred to and from Nablus, using the back-to-back method. It was operated by the army, from 06:00 to 20:00. Until 2009.
Ronit Dahan-RamatiJan-6-2026Awarta: Traffic jam on the way to Nablus
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'Azzun 'Atma
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'Azzun 'Atma
A Palestinian village of about 1,800 residents. The settlement of Sha'arei Tikva was established on its land adjacent to it, and the settlement of Oranit was established on its agricultural lands. By 2013, the separation fence had passed through the village and a checkpoint staffed by the army allowed the residents to cross from side to side. After building a massive wall surrounding the village and some of its agricultural lands, the residents went daily for five years to their lands that remained in the Seam Zone through the Oranit agricultural checkpoint (4). Since 2018 it has only opened during the olive harvest and the farmers have to pass daily at the Beit Amin / Abu Salman checkpoint (1447), about 3 kilometers north.From a report from March 24, 2021: "The farmers from Beit Amin and Azon Atma are happy that since February 21 the Oranit checkpoint .is going to be open 3 times a day, The farmers are really developing the place."
Report from July 14, 2024: "Ornit checkpoint is closed . The Beit Amin/Abu Salman agricultural checkpoint is closed (there is no contact with the military to check if it opens rarely), the Ezbat Jaloud checkpoint was opened once a day before the war.
Updated for July 2024
Apr-11-2019Azoun: The main entrance to village blocked now for several weeks
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Beit Furik checkpoint
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One of the three internal checkpoints that closed on the city of Nablus - Beit Furik to the east, Hawara to the south, Beit Iba to the west. The checkpoint is located at the junction of Roads 557 (an apartheid road that was forbidden for Palestinians), leading to the Itamar and Alon Morea settlements and Road 5487. The checkpoint was established in 2001 for pedestrians and vehicles; The opening hours were short and the transition was slow and very problematic.Allegedly, the checkpoint is intended to monitor the movement to and from Nablus of the residents of Beit Furik and Beit Dajan, being the only opening outside their villages. Since May 2009 the checkpoint is open 24 hours a day, the military presence is limited, vehicles can pass through it without inspections, except for random inspections. (Updated April 2010)
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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)
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Shoshi AnbarMay-18-2025Huwara: The old houses in Area C
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Za'tara (Tapuah)
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Za'tara (Tapuah) Za'tara is an internal checkpoint in the heart of the West Bank, at the intersection of Road 60 and Road 505 (Trans-Samaria), east of the Tapuah settlement. This checkpoint is the "border" marked by the IDF between the north and south of the West Bank, in accordance with the policy of separation between the two parts of the West Bank that has been in place since December 2005. At the Za'tara checkpoint, there are separate routes for Israelis and Palestinians. In the route for Israelis, there are no inspections and the route for Palestinians inspects. The queue lengthens and shortens suits. The checkpoint is open 24 hours a day. The checkpoint is partially staffed and the people who pass through it are checked at random.
Shoshi AnbarSep-27-2023Za'atra (Tapuah Intersection). Signs
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