‘Awarta, ‘Azzun ‘Atma, Huwwara, יום א’ 15.3.09, בוקר
Translation: Suzanne O.
Azon Atma
7:20 a.m.
The traffic is heavy, Palestinian workers wait for Israelis, usually settlers, to come and transport them to their work in the settlements. On the other side, Israeli drivers wait for their Palestinian workers. What an absurd situation of mutual dependence, it is impossible to disengage Palestinians from settlers.
There is a Border Police vehicle and an Israeli police vehicle and an additional Border Police vehicle arrives while we are at the roadblock.
An Israeli, who is apparently waiting for his workers, tells us that there was a big jam at the roadblock and the Palestinians tried to get through the fence.
About 25 Palestinians stand crowded together at the eastern side of the fence, 3 soldiers check them on the Israeli side and 3 additional soldiers guard them.
The Palestinians we talked to claim that it took them two hours to cross two roadblocks. We tried to talk to the soldiers, to find out what is going on, but they ignored us.
7:40 a.m.
The civilian police vehicle leaves. The roadblock empties, about 7 – 8 people queue for inspection. We leave.
Zeita
There are a great number of vehicles on both sides of the barrier.
Za'atra
There are no vehicles at the western roadblock and 9 cars at the northern one. On our way to Huwwara we see many vehicles on their way to the roadblock.
Huwwara
About 8:00 a.m.
Our welcome is the shriek of a female soldier to a Palestinian: "Yallah!" The pedestrian traffic into Nablus is heavy. Many of them are students, among them many females. Later in the shift the number of pedestrians to Nablus lessens.
It is very cold and rainy, and the picture of the cleaner struggling with a puddle in the inspection area with a mop, is repeated.
There are 9 vehicles in the queue from Nablus. The usual process: the passengers, apart from the driver, alight a few metres before the roadblock and wait until the vehicle examination is completed, about a minute or two if the cars are not checked, sometimes longer if the boot is checked. It doesn't matter whether it is very cold and pouring with rain, and of course the army is not worried whether the passengers are dressed for the weather or not.
There is no vehicle traffic into Nablus.
9:00 a.m.
We are asked to go to Beit Iba and leave the roadblock. A few minutes later we find out that there is no need to go there.
Awarta
There are 3 cars at the exit and one at the entrance.
Beita
A Border Police jeep observes the exit from the village. (This morning, when we passed by, there was no military vehicle parked there.)
'Awarta
See all reports for this place-
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-RamatiMay-12-2025Awarta: Waiting to move towards 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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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
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