‘Awarta, Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za’tara (Tapuah), Thu 8.1.09, Morning
Translation: Hanna K.
06:25 – At the Samaria gate there is no police.
06:40 – Marda – both entrances are open. At Zeita, as usual, the entrances are closed.
06:45 – Za'tara – there are 3 cars from the west. From the direction of Nablus there is only one lane open, but they let people pass without checking them. There are about 10 cars are waiting but they pass quickly.
06:55 – Beita – opposite the entranace stands a jeep and stops taxis. When we enter the parking area next to the taxi another military police jeep arrives and chases us away by means of a loudspeaker. We decided to stop there again on our way back.
07:00 – Huwwara – There are 2 lanes open at the vehicles passage, but the checking is performed idly. All the passengers are made to leave the vehicle, they have to open their coats and to lift the shirt and the trouser legs. The Palestinians complain that cars are waiting an hour to an hour and a half for the passage.
The entrance to Nablus, as usual lately, is absolutely free. The pedestrians' shed is packed full and even beyond it, as we haven't seen for a long time at these morning hours. There are two lanes open, as well as the humanitarian one. We see women in the rear part of the shed. The Palestinians complain about a waiting period of an hour and a half. Again all the men must perform the "Checkpoint Dance" – they arrive at the wicket to hand in the papers, retreat 2 meters, open the coat, lift the shirt and the vest, bend to life the trouser legs and come back to the wicket.
The booth for the checking of women has been transferred to the new CP. Does anybody know if there is anything at the rear part where there was the detention cabin. Naturally we couldn't see.
The CP commander sends us to observe from the entrance to Nablus. We see that the brigadier commander's letter, prohibiting our presence in the area is still stuck to the checking post. Small stalls for coffee and cigarettes emerge in a way that they can retreat and be closed in a matter of seconds when need arises.
07:30 – The car post is closed. The commander says that the Palestinians in the queue quarreled amongst themselves and as a means of punishment he closed the passes. Two minutes later it is opened again.
07:40 – Awarta – in the queue there are two trucks and five private cars (seemingly VIPs.)
07:45 – Beit Furik – there are three soldiers on the spot but the passage is free.
08:00 Back at Huwwara. We mounted in the direction of the Mount of Blessing to see the car queue. There are thirty cars waiting and only one lane is open. According to a simple calculation, even if each car will be checked for 2 minutes only the last car will have to wait for an hour. This confirms what the Palestinians said about a waiting period of over an hour.
At the pedestrians' passage the queue is considerably shorter and it fills up "only" a third of the shed. The women pass virtually without waiting at the humanitarian queue. A major whom we met there and who agreed to talk to us, said that he arrived on the spot and saw to it that the passage be sped up considering special needs (he transferred to beginning of the queue a man who said that somebody had died and that he needed to go home).
08:25 – a second car lane is opened.
08:30 – A jeep opposite Beita still stops taxi and writes down on a form the particulars of the passengers. When we asked what the purpose of this was the soldier claimed that this was very important – "do you know how many knives we caught this was and how many terrorists we stopped here?"…..the forms are, of course, passed on for checking, but he doesn't know how checks and what is being done with the details.
08:40 – Za'tara – there is no queue from Nablus.
We see here the last innovation. Two soldiers stand in front of the square, on the right side. Across the road there lies a cable and we see that it is connected on the left side of the road to a row of spikes. If somebody should try to escape from the CP one could pull the spikes quickly and stop him.
'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-RamatiMay-12-2025Awarta: Waiting to move 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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