‘Azzun, ‘Azzun ‘Atma, Habla, Huwwara, Za’tara (Tapuah)
By Private car.
12.45 At O.'s plant nursery we were advised that the gate would be opened at one fifteen. O. tells us that they changed the hours without notifying them. On the evening before the soldiers closed the gate earlier, according to the new time schedule, and there were people who didn't manage to get in. O. called the Palestinian DCO, reported, shouted at the soldiers. The woman-officer listened and, according to O., feared that he reported on her, so she opened the gate. O. points out that contrary to this incident "there are soldiers we literally fell in love with."
Hereunder are the up to date opening hours of the Habla CP:
Morning 06.20-7.45
Noon 13.15-14.15
Evening 17.50-18.30
13.15 Habla CP
The gate was opened with a 12 minute delay. When we asked for the reason, one of the soldiers answered: "Don't speak to me, I am not obliged to answer you." This time they check the ID cards twice – both the soldiers at the gate and also in the "concrete box". It concerns Palestinians who return home. Before we left the site one of the girl soldiers came after us and said she didn't mind that "we stand in a military area". But we shouldn't take photographs. Such charitableness!
13.30 Eliyahu CP
The entrance to the CP – the one which is usually open and nobody minds the people entering, is manned this time by the military police. Two Palestinians were stopped there and the chaos is great. It is not clear why they don't direct them to the side. Later a Palestinian ambulance parks to the right.
13.45 Azzun
At the entrance there is no military presence, whe have experienced this already a few times. We bring our friend Z. clothes for his shop. We eat a good Shwarma meal in a restaurant in Azzun. The owner is friendly, the food tasty, fresh and cheap.
14.40 A visit in the amusement park in the outskirts of Azzun
Surprisingly the gate to the park is open, an opportunity to see it once from the inside. K. meets us at the entrance, he is a psychologist who received from the Baladiya of Azzun a franchise to manage the place. He intends cleaning the small pools, those of the children, and to activate them in summer. He shows of where there were big pools which had been destroyed by the army on the opening day. There is no sign of them. Just sand.
The area is spacious, very run down, but with an enormous potential. There are lovely corners, intended for large families who will come to relax. The place is situated on a hillside and a pleasant wind blows there. Even in summer, according to K. Before leaving K. asks for a phone number which he could contact in cases where the army will create problems. We gave him Petahya's number, in the hope he won't be forced to use it. We promised to come again towards summer, after the overhaul. 
15.00 at the exit from Azzun three soldiers without cars.
15.30 Huwwara
We read about the demonstration on the occasion of the Day of the Earth which took place there on the day before. We went to the Knaffe place, to hear from the people about the events. The lads in the shop did not seem too agitated, although they told us that the army forced them to close the place and they also showed us a video piece where soldiers hitting the lads are seen, while those are bringing the chairs and returning them to the shop…
One of the lads tells us that he was released from prison this week after 19 months of imprisonment, where he was beaten too. He shows us (proudly?) the release document. In prison he learned to work on computer, and is now studying at the A-Nagah university. What will he do later? Where will he work?
15.30 Tapuah CP
There is much activity. A vehicle of the military police. They detained three Palestinians. They made them stand facing the fence, and checked the vehicle meticulously.
At the entrance to Marda a milidary jeep is parked.
16.10 The new Azzun Atma Gate (6130)
A Palestinian on a bicyle approaches the shut gate. Then another arrives. And a tractor too.
The gate is shut. This is a one piece iron gate, which blocks any possibility of finding out what lies behind it. A armoured military vehicle arrives at the gate. The Palestinian tells us that the gate is intended to be opened at five, and he would have to wait an hour until he would be able to return home. He fears that the soldiers will scold him, but convey the gate on its groove and it transpires, to everybody's surprise, that it is possible to enter. The closed gate – is open!
On the inside of the gate nine (!!!) soldiers sit in the shade, and it was impossible to know about their existence from our side. The soldiers in the vehicle too are surprised to learn that there wasn't any soldier on the entrance side. There is no checking post and there are absolutely no signposts.
The new wall is monstrous. Loads of money were spend there in order to confine behind it an entire village.
17.00 home.
'Azzun
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Azoun (updated February 2019)
A Palestinian town situated in Area B (under civil Palestinian control and Israeli security control),
on road 5 between Nablus and Qalqiliya, east of Nabi Elias village. The inhabitants are allowed to construct and improve infrastructures. The Separation Fence has confiscated lands belonging to the town's people. In 2018 olive tree groves owned by one of its inhabitants were confiscated for the sake of paving a road to bypass Nabi Elias. Azoun population numbers 13,000, its economic state dire. Its infrastructures are poor, neglect and poverty rampant. In the meantime, the town council has completed paving an internal road for the inhabitants' welfare.
Because of its proximity to the Jewish settler-colony of Karnei Shomron and its outposts, the town suffers the intense presence of the Israeli army, especially at nighttime: soldiers enter homes, arrest suspects, trash the house and sometimes ruin it, as they do in numerous places in the West Bank. At times a checkpoint closes the entrance to the town, so no one can come in or get out.
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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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Habla
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Habla CP (1393)
The Habla checkpoint (1393) was established on the lands of the residents of Qalqilya, on the short road that
connected it for centuries to the nearby town of Habla. The separation barrier intersects this road twice and cut off the residents of Qalqilya from their lands in the seam zone.(between the fence and the green line).
There is a passage under Road 55 that connects Qalqilya to the sabotage This agricultural barrier is used by the farmers and nursery owners established along Road 55 from the Green Line and on both sides of the kurkar road leading to the checkpoint.
This agricultural checkpoint serves the residents of Arab a-Ramadin al-Janoubi (detached from the West Bank), who pass through it to the West Bank and back to their homes. The opening hours (3 times a day) of this agricultural checkpoint are longer than usual, about an hour (recently shortened to 45 minutes), and are coordinated with the transportation hours of a-Ramadin children studying in the occupied in the West Bank.
Nina SebaAug-18-2025Habla: The gate is in the process of closing
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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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