Beit Furik, Huwwara, Sha`ar Shomron (Qasem), Za’tara (Tapuah), Thu 20.11.08, Afternoon
Natanya translating.
13.45 Sha'ar Shomron. 4 trucks at the exit.
Marda is open.
Zeita. It seems that the gate is open but the mounds of earth are blocking the way as usual.
14.00 Za'tara (Tapuach) . No cars waiting and the passage is swift.
14.15 At Huwwara
There is one detainee in isolation. He does not seem very bothered and said he had tried to pass on the side and knew that he had to wait three hours to be freed. He tried to ask the soldiers to let him out to buy food and water but they took no notice.
3 cars at the entrance. None at the exit.
The shed is full. 3 turnstiles working at a reasonable rate and a wait of about 20 minutes. The humanitarian line is not under pressure. People coming out put on their belts and wait in the shed without the soldiers interfering.
14.40 3 cars at the entrance to Nablus and 5 at the exit. At one stage only 2 turnstiles were working but after 5 minutes the third was manned again.
15.20 The detainee still in the isolation.
We left.
15.30 Beit Furik.
No cars at the entrance, 6 cars including a bus at the exit. The checking is on one lane and the cars wanting to enter wait until it is open.
Now and again pedestrians arrive and wait a few minutes. Only the left turnstile is working but many try the right first and get stuck. Fatchia asks the commander Y. who comes to push us back to mark the turnstile which is not working but he thinks this unnecessary. (In the end he puts up a handwritten note). In the shed a number of people wait to exit and this is very slow.
15.40 One of the men comes to ask us to help a group of women and children who want to exit Beit Furik to go to a "chinah" before a weeding and after a few minutes we see a large group of women and children in holiday attire getting out of two small buses and waiting outside the shed. Fatchia turns to Z. who promises to help. The commander, another soldiers and a military policewoman are wandering here and there. The commander speaks for a long time on the phone with the military policewoman following him.
16.05 The women are sent to the shed then sent out, get on to the buses and with crys of joy leave Beit Furik. In the meantime the shed is full of pedestrians wanting to exit. The pressure is great but the checking is very slow and people hardly come out. The military policewoman leave the checking area every now and again. To reduce the pressure the commander takes some of the older men out of the line and checks them. They arrive very angry because they say told that the women and children should be dealt with as they are being crushed in the shed but he takes no notice of them. But a few minutes later he stops the humanitarian line. Into the cement cell surrounded by barbed wire two young men are pushed in. One of them has his leg in a cast and tried to come through with the older men. Everyone who comes out turns all their anger on us. We spoke to the commander who said that the problem was not caused by him (and that there were not enough people to man the posts) but by the military police.
16.15 We phoned Z. to inform about the situation which was getting worse and worse. Also those waiting to enter had to wait a long time. A woman with a child in her arms had to wait 15 minutes next to the turnstile. Shouts of anger were heard but this did not speed up the passage. The captain and another soldier were wandering around the area. Cars also were checked very slowly. Another man is thrown into the "hole." One of those coming out said that in the morning there had also been delays at the entrance and students had come late to their studies.
16.30 The pressure in the shed is getting worse. People wait almost an hour. Another telephone to Z. Only one checking booth is open. He promises to send someone. An army jeep shortly arrive and soldiers get out, speak to one another and go off again. In the meantime there are already 5 detainees. A woman turns to us in English while she tries to wipe her tears behind her glasses. Her son had only asked one of the soldiers to make things easier for her and the soldier had caught him by the neck and thrown him into the 'hole". I know those tears which come of their own accord because of these heartless expressions of the "strong." From the sounds in the background and from what those coming out tell us there is a feeling that there will be an explosion. We again phone Z. and the woman who came to us speaks to him and he says he will deal with it.
16.45 Reinforcements arrive. Two get out of a car and speak to the captain who again is speaking lengthily on the phone. It is getting dark and hard to see what is happening but things do speed up. The woman is still waiting for her son to be freed and also for her 15 year old daughter who has not yet come out.
17.00 We leave. On the way there are no more lines or delays.
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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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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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