Awarta, Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za’tara (Tapuah), Sun 14.9.08, Morning
Translation: Hanna K.
07:40 Za'tara:
3 cars coming from the west, 25 in the queue of cars coming from the north.
07:55 Beit Furik:
There are no people at the CP. There is one car being checked and another is waiting.
08:00 Awarta:
There are three cars at the exit from the village, and no trucks at the entrance.
08:10 Huwwara:
The parking lot is crowded and lively. At the CP the usual routine: The magnometer is deafening, there is an x-ray machine for screening objects, belts are being removed and put on again on leaving the turnstiles. There are about 40-50 people in the queue. From time to time a car headed for Nablus gushes forth. The passengers papers are checked manually. A bus arrives – only the driver's papers are being checked.
08:20 There is pressure on the turnstiles for people entering Nablus. There are women and men in one queue, they take care that the women stand on one side of the passage and the men on the other. We approach the CP commander, a captain, with the request to enable part of the people entering Nablus to pass to the left of the CP – he refuses, and when we claim that some commanders do it when there is much pressure he reacts by saying: not when I'm on duty. But it has to be pointed out that later in our shift, this very commander allowed a driver who transported an invalid who wasn't able to walk, not even with crutches, to enter Nablus, although the driver's vehicle didn't have an authorization. We commended this action to the commanded, and a conversation ensued in which he claimed that the soldiers, when they see us, treat the Palestinians badly on purpose.
08:40 There are 6 vehicles at the entrance to Nablus. Taxis which leave the parking lot block their way. The commander goes up to there, probably with the intention of putting things in order, and after a short while he returns to the CP and the cars heading for Nablus pass.
A Palestinian whom we asked what the commander was doing near the parking lot, tell us about his suffering, in fact the suffering of the Palestinian people, He wants to pray during the holidays at the Temple Mount, but he doesn't get a permission to do so because he is not yet 50 years old.
09:10 There are about 20 people at the turnstiles. The pedestrians' queue to Nablus has become empty.
09:30 We left the CP with the intention of passing at Aassira al Qabilia, but because the Palestinian villages are not marked, we didn't arrive there.
We drove on the Yitzhar road, the road is almost empty, at the Jit junction there are two military jeeps, there is not Palestinian car.
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'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-RamatiJul-2-2025Awarta checkpoint: Cars waiting towards 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)
.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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