‘Awarta, Beit Furik, Huwwara, Shomron Crossing, Za’tara (Tapuah), Thu 16.4.09, Afternoon
Translator: Charles K.
Strong winds, cold and occasional rain
13:54 Cross-Samaria crossing point – Police observe those leaving Israel.
14:20 Marda – Both gates are open.
We saw at a number of places along the fence what seemed to be openings – authorized (?!), a huge mound of earth at one of them. But we saw a villager pass through there with his donkey (photo attached: "An opening to go through"…)
Zeita – As usual, the gate is closed and locked.
14:35 Za'tara checkpoint –
We saw no vehicles waiting from the west; from the north (Nablus, Huwwara) 15 vehicles waited in one lane to be inspected. The soldier on guard points his weapon directly at the passengers in the vehicles.
14:50 Awarta – An endless line of trucks.
14:52 Beit Furik –
Old sights reappear – vehicles waiting to be inspected on both sides of the checkpoint. The line occasionally gets stuck, and sometimes quickly disappears (will send photo).
It starts to rain.
15:05 Awarta checkpoint –
As crowded as before. A long line of trucks, whose end isn't visible. We notified N. at the humanitarian office.
15:15 Huwwara checkpoint –
In the parking lot we meet M. S. who runs a café out of the back of his dilapidated car. He used to have a yellow stand here, an ad for Lipton Tea. But since the most recent decrees he runs a mobile drinks stand. Photo to be attached. The other coffee cart isn't far from him. Today they can sell. No one know about tomorrow. Those are the peddlers who are at the checkpoint today.
Reminder: There's a trailer located east of the road at the industrial zone near Ariel which serves as a meeting place and snack bar for truck drivers and settlers all day long.
There's also a permanent stand at Za'tara that sells food and drinks to soldiers and settlers.
About 40 youths wait under the shed for their turn to be inspected at the two sealed booths. The female soldiers aren't yelling over the loudspeaker today. The line off to the side for women, children and the elderly isn't crowded.
Two detainees in the pen. One stood at the opening and we could see him. When Maya went over to find out how long he's been detained, and why, she was told there were two people in the pen, not one. Things not visible "from our side" (that is, from the place where we're allowed to stand) are visible from there.
The DCO representative refers us to the checkpoint commander to find out why the two are being detained. The answer: they're being checked. The humanitarian office says that if we don't have ID numbers, they won't be able to help. But we have no way to find out the ID numbers of the detainees.
Today, according to the humanitarian office, people are allowed to be detained for four hours.
The occupier is allowed to detain someone each time for this or that number of hours. There's no standard. Only the detention is standard. When, nevertheless, we later tried to find out from the humanitarian office what's happening with the detainees, their reply was: detention is the usual practice at Huwwara.
We hear (again) about settlers from Bracha coming to Burin at night, cursing and throwing rocks.
It begins pouring. There's no shelter in the parking lot from the rain.
16:10 As he did when we first came, the soldier in the booth is still pointing his weapon directly at the passengers in the vehicles arriving for inspection. 11 vehicles are on line coming from Nablus. 3 minibuses are detained in the parking lot – one has already been detained for an hours, each of the others for half an hour. We get to know them – a man from East Jerusalem with a blue ID card, accompanying a friend on the way to celebrate his engagement to a woman from Ramallah. Another minibus, detained, we discover, because of a Palestinian from Gaza who's been living many years in Nablus and is married to a Jewish woman. He asked that the other passengers be allowed to continue without him, but they're not allowed to. We were able to get to know one of that minibus's passengers, an actor who presented impersonations of Arafat, Netanyahu, Sheikh Yassin, Sharon…all this while additional minibuses are detained in our presence. All (except for the first) were released while we were still at the checkpoint.
At 17:20, after being detained for more than two hours, the minibus was released (with the man who'll be engaged today, his friend from East Jerusalem and the other passengers).
'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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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
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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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Shomron Crossing
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Shomron Crossing The Shomron checkpoint for vehicles. is located east of Rosh HaAyin and Kafr Qassem, on Road 5 (Trans-Samaria) leading to Ariel and the Za'atara junction. It is intended for blue ID cardholders, foreign guests or diplomats, and international organizations only. In 2009 the management was entrusted to a civil security company.
Ronit Dahan-RamatiAug-21-2025Highway 505: Salute to the Hilltop Youth
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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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