Beit Furik, Burin (Yitzhar), Huwwara, Za’tara (Tapuah), Mon 17.11.08, Afternoon
Translation: Hanna K.
Za'tara/Tapuah Junction
14:05 – We counted about 20 vehicles waiting in two queues from north to south. From the south only the Palestinian cars are being checked. From all the other directions the traffic is free.
14:25 – A rolling CP of the Border Police near Burin/Yitzhar
Beit Furik
14:35 – At the parking lot two Palestinians tell us about a girl who was seen taken near the CP by a military vehicle blindfolded (they didn't say whether she was also handcuffed). When we approached the CP the commander rushed to us to tell us not to get near, and that we are only allowed to stand at the edge of the CP near the beginning of the thoroughfare wall.
When we asked about the girl he answered hastily that she threw stones, and wasn't prepared to add anything. We asked if there were detainees and he said there were but didn't want to disclosed how many and why they were detained. We saw from afar one detainee.
The pedestrian queue from the direction of Beit Furik was quite crowded. At the humanitarian queue they passed quicker. At the other queues we noted a waiting time of half an hour for those leaving Beit Furik. In the opposite direction the traffic is sparser.
For some reason they left only one lane for vehicles in both directions. Those who come from the south, and they are few, have to wait sometimes almost an hour until they are allowed to pass. Most of the traffic arrives from the north and is checked by sampling.
A group of three officers headed by lieutenant colonel D. who is responsible for the activities of the military police at the passages (that's how he explained his task) arrives. He was polite and courteous but in reply to our complaints regarding the behaviour of the CP commander he replied that we could only as how long a detainee would be held, and not why he was detained. Regarding the girl who was taken he refused to explain. When we asked him to give us a phone number to enable us to call him if need arose, he evaded the issue and answered that he already had a good connection with Hanna B.
Huwwara
15:20 – already in the vicinity of the noisy parking lot we noticed a police vehicle parked west of the CP and how two boys were handcuffed, blindfolded and forced to their knees. We went up to them but didn't succeed talking to them as they refused to talk. We saw that they were very young. The soldiers who stood next to them were prepared to say that they were caught passing at the CP and that they were transferring something "bad". The police officer who found us tried to chase us away with shouts and screams, and then a Palestinian woman appeared and shouted at one of the boys, so we understood that she was his mother. She too was chased away together with us, but she spoke English well enough so we could understand from her that her son and his friend, who are 16 years old, carried photographs of themselves carrying arms. According to her they did it at a party, for amusement, with a gun they got from a Palestinian policeman. We watched as their legs were being attached to each other with shackles, they were put into the police car and carried away.
At the CP we saw the same three officer from the military police and hurried up to them. What lieutenant colonel D. told us was that in addition to the photographs the boy also carried a long knife (as the officer was told). We told the boy's mother this information but her husband told us that he had driven after the police car and that in his opinion the boys were put into the "Offer" camp. We tried to get more information from the humanitarian center, but they returned to us with the same information we got before. They were unable to explain why the boys were taken by the police and not the army.
Only after the boy's parents disappeared we discovered to our dismay that we didn't manage to get names and phone numbers to find out what happened to the boys.
At the CP itself there were no detainees. The humanitarian queue was active and the people who were waiting at the regular exit from Nablus queue had to wait for about half an hour. The passage from Huwwara in the direction of Nablus is free.
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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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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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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