‘Azzun, Burin (Yitzhar), Habla, Huwwara, Jayyus, Shomron Crossing, Za’tara (Tapuah), Wed 12.12.12, Afternoon
Translator: Charles K.
11:30 Habla checkpoint. Fences and gates are closed. Not a soul around. A sign displays the hours when the checkpoint is open.
Coffee and plants with A. in the plant nursery. The hosts and guests change places around the table. A. is affable to everyone, funny, witty. He’s always happy to see Machsom Watch, always repeats that we’re the Palestinians’ ray of light. T., a friend who joins us, owns a fruit stand which the army keeps ordering him to move from place to place. Now it’s located at a gas station. His Hebrew is extraordinary he knows what each word means, the aphorisms roll off his tongue and it’s a pleasure to listen. He learned by himself, from reading and listening. A true autodidact.
A. tells us of an incident involving a group of soldiers at the Habla agricultural crossing. They were being photographed with a raised weapon against the background of the lengthening line of farmers waiting to go to work. He complained loudly that they’re not opening the gate on time and in response they fell upon him rudely, pushed him with the gun, threatened not to let him through. A. submitted a complaint to the Palestinian DCO; he reports on a prohibition against complaining to the Israeli DCO in order to avoid contact with the "Shabak" (the Israeli General Security Service).
13:00 Jayyous
We visited our friend N.’s family. He wasn’t home because he’d received an Israeli work permit. His wife and children were happy to see us. They showed us their lovely, renovated home. A second-hand shop run by his wife is on the main street. We made our contribution and drove on.
In Azzunwe stopped at Z’s second-hand store. Machsom Watch women are involved in his “rehabilitation,” helping to maintain the store and with medical aid. The army injured Z. psychologically and physically. People come to the shop, inspect the merchandise. They finger the clothing and footwear; the new salesperson behaves as if he’s always been there. We made our contribution and drove on.
15:00 Burin
We met M. so he could sign documents aimed at removing him from the security blacklist. We sat with his extended family whom we’d met on the trips to the beach. We made our contribution and drove on.
16:30 Huwwara
Huwwara is full of life. New shops have opened, others are under construction. The main road hasn’t been repaved like roads to other roads villages even though traffic is heavy and dangerous.
Chance meetings:
At Mazen’s coffee-and-sweets shop: David, our guest, is curious about the customers, wants to meet them and we use what spoken Arabic we’ve managed to acquire. We sat with three youths from Haris: a student, one who works in his father’s enterprise and a laborer in the settlements. After a few minutes we hear about a youth about 20 years older who’s already been jailed in Israel a few times: for six months when he was 16 and for a year when he was 18, because he threw rocks. He tells us about his time in jail, that the 60 days of interrogation at Jalameh were hard. Eight hours a day including beatings. Then he was transferred to Megiddo where he didn’t do anything. There are no longer classes in Israeli prisons like there used to be. All he did was sleep and wait for his family to visit. His mother visited once a month, for 45 minutes each time. According to his brother, he was jumpy when he came out. His behavior changed.
A man in the street who owns a chocolate shop invites us in. He tells of an incident this week in which settlers from Yitzhar entered his family’s olive grove. "Yesh Din" is dealing with it.
17:30 Za’tara.
Soldiers at the checkpoint aren’t watching the traffic. It flows.
We saw almost no military vehicles on the road all day.
18:00 Shomron checkpoint
Our driver (Amira’s brother) spoke English, we hadn’t removed the banner and he had a foreign passport so they took his documents for inspection and sent us to the vehicle inspection area.
They asked us to empty the car. Flats of plants we had bought olive oil, etc. They inspected and scanned everything. The car was checked top, bottom, within.
The black hibiscus plant received special treatment: a security man donned gloves, took two Q-tips and stuck them into the pot’s earth. Then he entered the laboratory, together with three more security people.
We were released after about 40 minutes. As we burst out laughing from how seriously they conducted the inspection, the security people told us earnestly, “We’re keeping the country safe…”
The Chabad menorah is still lit at the Shomron gate. It’s to remind us of other victories.
'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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Burin (Yitzhar)
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Burin (Yitzhar)
This is a Palestinian village in the Nablus governorate, a little south of Nablus, on the main road passing through the West Bank. The settlements: Yitzhar and Har Bracha, settled in locations that surrounded the village, placed fences so it is cut off the main road.
There are around 4000 inhabitants. Most of them are engaged in agriculture and pasture, although many graduates of the two secondary schools continue to study at the university. Academic positions are hardly available, they find work as builderd, or leave for the Gulf countries.
The village lands were appropriated several times for the establishment of Israeli settlements and military bases, and as a result, Burin's land and water resources dwindled. lSince 1982, more than 2,000 dunams of village land have been declared "state land" and then transferred to Har Bracha settlement.
Over the past few years and more so since 2017, the villagers have been terrorized by the residents of Yitzhar and Har Bracha, the Givat Ronen outpost and others. Despite the close proximity of soldiers to an IDF base close to one of the village's schools, residents are suffering from numerous stone-throwing events, vehicle and fire arson, also reported in the press.
In 2023, the prevention of the olive harvest in the village plot was more violent than ever. Soldiers and settlers walked with drawn weapons between the houses of the village and demanded that people stop harvesting in the village itself and in the private plots outside the village. The settlers from Yitzhar and Giv'at Roned raided the olive groves and stole crops. 300 olive trees belonging to the residents of Burin, near Yitzhar, were uprooted. The loss of livelihood from the olives causes long-term economic damage to the farmers' families, bringing them to the point of starvation.
(updated for November 2023)
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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.
Ronit Dahan-RamatiApr-25-2025Habla Checkpoint: system of gates
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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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Jayyus North (935)
See all reports for this placeShomron Crossing
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Shomron Crossing The Shomron checkpoint for vehicles. is located east of Rosh HaAyin and Kafr Qassem, on Road 5 (Trans-Samaria) leading to Ariel and the Za'atara junction. It is intended for blue ID cardholders, foreign guests or diplomats, and international organizations only. In 2009 the management was entrusted to a civil security company.Nava EisenNov-9-2008Shomron crossing checkpoint 23.10.08
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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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