Awarta, Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za’tara (Tapuah), Mon 21.1.08, Morning
Translation: Suzanne O.
Za'atra
6:30 a.m.
The roadblock is packed. The soldiers use three lanes and still there are tens of cars in the queue. The soldiers are reservists and the commander listens to us patiently and understandingly. We tell him of the complaints by the bus drivers who have to wait in the general queue and then to unload their passengers for an additional inspection in the car park, something which makes the passengers prefer to take taxis and leaves the bus drivers unemployed. The commander understands and says that the complaint should be passed to those above him. True. At the same time a bus is inspected at break-neck speed and continues on its way.
Awarta
7:00 a.m.
We got to know a porter here and have brought him some clothes – we bring the parcels of clothes to his house thus passing right through the village. He tells us of his poverty stricken life. They get water in jugs and buckets. We saw women and children carrying empty bottles to the source of the water. A water tanker comes once a day or so. Electricity? "Weak". Soldiers entered the village at night a couple of days ago, they entered a particular house, turned its occupants out, combed the house and when they left money had disappeared (NS350) as well as other things. One of the boys was arrested. He told us all this and promised to pass detailed facts to whoever was involved in the incident.
Beit Furiq
8:00 a.m.
There is a queue in front of the roadblock. At a certain point a soldier starts to shout and sends the person being inspected to the back and the queue stops but starts again within a few minutes. The traffic of cars to Nablus is at the normal pace, but there is no crowding.
Huwwara
8:30 a.m.
A young man is in the cell; according to the Palestinians he is on his way to a funeral in Jordan. We try to approach the soldiers to find out his fate, and then a rude female soldier and a male soldier who obeys orders and another soldier turn us into the cause of a disturbance because we have crossed the white line and the red line. I ask to speak to the officer. He is not there. The behaviour of the soldiers towards those crossing is loud and rude. Particularly the soldier in the left hand position who shouts at a man crossing "Ishlach, ishlach", which means ‘undress' so rudely that it makes us boil. Afterwards she shouts at us imitating our voices (a bad imitation by the way) and says that she will hold up the roadblock until we return to the correct line. The officer arrives and seems to have no control over the situation. He is not concerned at the vulgarity of the soldier's tone or to the soldier next to her who shifts the Palestinians backwards and forwards. We have no choice but to move forward to see and hear what is going on and that is what we do. Then the three soldiers tackle us again as if this is the most important thing they have to deal with at this moment: where the women of MachsomWatch stand. Afterwards the officer comes to explain to us why this is happening (nothing that you have not heard already) and he gets a flowing lecture from Tsvia on the relationship between the occupier/occupied in history. He listens. He makes his point (nothing that you have not heard already). Meanwhile the detainee is released and a Palestinian holding a permit to transport goods complains about an experience he had in Israel, despite the permit and documents, an Egged driver did not allow him to get on the bus on the way back from Petach Tikva to Nablus. We are passing the complaints to ‘Yesh Din' with all the particulars. (In parenthesis we have to say that he is lucky to have got a permit to transport goods.)
'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-RamatiApr-23-2026Awarta Checkpoint is empty
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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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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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