Azzun, Beit Furik, Huwwara, Jit, Za’tara (Tapuah), Thu 20.3.08, Afternoon
14.07 Zeita…
The entrance is closed and at Marda the gate is open.
At Za'tara
19 cars coming form the north and two checking areas and many soldiers.
14.16 Huwwara village
A little distance after the entrance to Beita there are police who are evidently from a special unit and armed and one points his weapon at us as we go past. N. says that they are looking for stolen cars and evidently to us this seems more frightening.
At Yitzhar there are no soldiers and the temporary checkpoint has been changed but at the moment of truth the checkpoint will return as it was.
At Huwwara CP
It is a holiday…the birthday of the prophet Muhammad and there are few people at the checkpoint. Students are not studying today and the schoolchildren neither and the Ecumenicals say that there are few cars or pedestrians also from the distance of Nablus. There is no crowding at the checking areas of which there are two and the men come out as usual with their belts in their hands.
14.54 There is a new concept for those detained …"wanted for questioning." No more bingo or the last 4 numbers. It sounds serious. The DCO representative also sees it as such as does not intervene. The detainee is from the Askar camp and had wanted to go through with his 3 younger brothers to see his father who works in the market at Beita and we could not find out his ID number so as to inform the centre. His phone has been taken from him and his younger brothers wait for him at the isolation until the father will arrive. It is really possible to regard this seriously.
We met R. whom we had hoped would have been helped by the Association for Civil Rights and who is always stopped at Huwwara because of his number and also at Za'tara. He smiles gently but one can really go crazy because of this situation. I will again try to pass this on to Asaf hoping that something will be done. Friends of R. say that at 16.00 his uncle is getting married and here he sits in Za'tara. They are waiting for him. We informed N. at the centre and at 15.26 he is freed.
We told the children who were waiting for their brother that we would come back to them.
15.40 Beit Furik
There is only one driver who says he has been waiting half an hour. Only one checking area is open and at the other are iron spikes. We cannot see how many cars are waiting to enter Beit Furik.
At 15.45 another checking area is opened. It seems that someone must have reported what was happening. 4 soldiers check, two in each area. IDs, baggage compartments, etc. are all checked fairly quickly and the cars go through and there are few people in the shed.
Seeing that someone does read our reports (fact….the window of the isolation has been carefully closed) I wish to bring up the subject again, an elementary subject about the fact that the biological needs of people are not taken into consideration…..for historical purposes so that someone should know we are talking about human beings here…women, children, the old all of whom here have to wait for hours and somehow to control their needs. I am not speaking of filthy temporary toilets…..but of these also….there are none.
16.32 At Huwwara
The isolation is empty and the children are gone. 3 young Bedouin from Beer Sheva have been detained because they entered Nablus. Their IDs have been taken and they do not understand why the soldiers address them so rudely…..shut your mouth, sit quietly …one of them says that he has served in the army and does not accept this behaviour.
A man is in the isolation but the soldier chases us away and we cannot talk to him and when we phone the centre we are told he is being held for questioning.
Yitzhar is empty and so is Jit. In the illegal settlement of Shvut Ami there is a couple un the pink house.
A Hummer stands next to the entrance to Shave Shomron.
Azzun is blocked.
'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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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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Fathiya AkfaMar-20-2008Huwara: traffic jam on the main road
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Jit Junction
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The checkpoint is located on Route 60 near at the junction with Route 55, near the village of Jit. There was a checkpoint for vehicles passing between the north and south of the West Bank, which was abolished towards 2010. Since then, surprise checkpoints have been set up there from time to time with a police or Border Police vehicle, and vehicles and their passengers are inspected.
Yehudith LevinMay-14-201414.05.14 Jit junction צומת ג'ית
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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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