Beit Furik, Huwwara, Fri 12.6.09, Morning
Translation: Hanna K.
Beit Furik
The barrier and the "humanitarian point" have disappeared. There remains only one small station with two soldiers. One of the soldiers, a sergeant, told us that the structure has been removed but that pedestrians are still not allowed to pass. It is allowed to pass by car till 23:00 hrs. The soldier also said that they are checking only cars that look suspicious, approximately one out of ten that pass. This according to him is done mainly so that the Palestinians should know that there still is a CP.
09:45 Huwwara
A few Palestinian taxi drivers and a cart owner told us that there are rumours that the CP is due to be closed. We asked the cart owner who lives near the CP what he will do after the CP will be closed, and he said that he would work in Nablus. We noticed that the X-ray machine has been brought closer to the CP.
Alexei, an officer with the rank of second lieutenant whom we had the pleasure of meeting at our previous visit too, forbade the two guests that were with us to take photos.
Second lieutenant Alexei asked us to remove ourselves and threatened to call the police. According to him it is forbidden for us to be there, as per the brigadier general's instructions. We asked him to show us the order, and reminded him of the argument we had with him last time regarding the same issue. The second soldier said: "you are grown up ladies and you know you have no right to stand here. You are not six year old girls".
We passed to the car area. There were two cars with three soldiers in each station. The traffic was sparse and each time two to three cars passed. A few minutes later a group of four soldiers, including Alexei and the soldier who had been with him, approached us. Again they asked us not to take photographs, telling us that "it is forbidden to photograph soldiers".
At the parking lot, before we prepared to leave, Alexei came up to us and asked to see the photos we had taken. The two guests who had taken the pictures refused to show them to him. He insisted that he had the authority of a policeman. We asked for the details of the soldier but he claimed that he had no soldier ID and forgot his name and personal details.
A few minutes later a jeep no. 611353 of the border police arrived and said that he was prepared to give us the details.
He also photographed our car.
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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Shoshi AnbarMay-18-2025Huwara: The old houses in Area C
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