Beit Furik, Huwwara, Sha`ar Shomron (Qasem), Za’tara (Tapuah), Mon 1.12.08, Afternoon
Crossroads of Za'tara/Tapuach. 14.20
2 cars with a Palestinian number being checked from the west. From the north 7 cars. No checking in other directions.
Beit Furik. 14.40
A large group of women with big parcels and children walk from the checkpoint to the parking lot. Those entering Nablus are not checked and those coming out are checked randomly. The soldiers already from a distance warn us not to come closer to the turnstiles. We stay at the end of the cement wall and meet M. who called our attention that the division between the two lanes of the road has been removed. And he says that if the army will not return them and renew the division he himself will do it with his own hands. He "complains" that the passage at the checkpoint is too easy and simple.
At the parking lot we got another explanation. The taxi drivers showed us a new gate which had been put up the previous day and are open in the direction of Beit Furik, Beit Deg'an. At the DCO the Palestinians said that they had been told that the existing checkpoint will be removed and there will be a free passage in the direction of Nablus as there is to Shave Shomron. The problem is that the gate is closed at night. There will be soldiers at the sentry tower but there may be problems. All this they say is guessing but the new gate in the direction of Beit Furik and the removal of the stones on the road makes us think that this may be correct. From the large line young girls come out one of them holding a plastic bag on which is written in Hebrew, "the new age".
Huwwara 15.15
T., the DCO representative explain why only one of the manometers is working. the others are being removed to the new structure of the CP. SO people wait an hour in the line.
Two checkers on both sides of the magnometer pass people from both sides and another line is checked by a soldier who lifts the shirts of the men and a woman soldier.
When we arrived there was one detainee, A "bingo" and he is used to it. He is freed quickly and then two who quarreled while standing in line and exchanged blows were detained. Both are put into the cell and T. says that he gave them an educational lecture and calmed them down. Another student was put into the cell. He was pushed in by the commander, Y., and another soldier who knocked him on his forehead with the edge of his helmet. The man who spoke some English and also later on T. said that he had been standing at the side of the queue and a soldier had suspected that he was pushing in and had pushed him. The man had argued which annoyed the soldier and so he and the commander had pushed him into the cell. We stood next to the cell and saw the pushing and the blow. The commander who saw us started to shout at us to leave and said that we were forbidden to stand and speak to the detainees. We answered that we could do so and we ask to speak to him. He said he would come out to us but we waited an hour and he did not do so. It turned out that he had managed to photograph us before he identified himself. There was no possibility of explained to him about the injustice that had been done and to ask the name of the soldier who had hit him. Not that we believe that we would have succeeded but at least to try.
The cell at Huwwara is a dark hole and the man said he was cold, that he had been unjustly treated and that if he was kept for three hours as T. said the commander could he would fight against us. We tried time and again to calm him. His friends sent him cigarettes and drink. Y. sent us off but did not come out to speak to us.
Many people leaving Nablus asked us what we could do and we admitted that we were helpless. An elderly man who came out, pointed to my notebook, shouted something I could not understand in Arabic and went off. We left when T. promised that if we did so he would see to emptying the cell.
The Samariya passage. 17.20
Two Israeli Arabs and a soldier with a kippah got into a fight. A military policewoman tried to calm the Arabs down. Immediately all the checkpoints were closed to those going west. We asked what was happening and one of the Arabs said that the soldier had hit his friend because "we are Arabs."
The checkpoint was opened when things had calmed down a bit.
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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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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