Beit Furik, Huwwara, Sun 21.12.08, Afternoon
Translation: Tal H.
14:45 – Kifl Hareth
The metal gate across the access road to the village is open now, but not for us. By the concrete tower (shooting and observation) that replaced the old Palestinian nursery, two soldiers on patrol made sure we turn right back to where we came from.
15:10 Beit Furik Checkpoint
Open, vehicle traffic moving freely in and out of Nablus.
15:25 Huwwara Checkpoint
At the roundabout at the entrance to the compound, brightly colored settler posters:
"Light starts at Homesh!"
The moment we arrive, before we even place ourselves at our monitoring spot close to where the Palestinians come out of the checks towards the exit path, the checkpoint commander hurries to us and insists we are disturbing him in his work by the mere fact of being there. Sic. He insists we move over to our 'designated' spot, allegedly close to the pedestrian entrance to Nablus. We call the army hotline to complain of this and eventually resituate ourselves precisely there, for the new spot provides a much better perspective of the pedestrian waiting lines.
Can't do without typos, can one? If in the old checkpoint, the army reserved a special cubicle for "women ispection", in the new one, the entrance gate especially designated for the disabled, reads "disable passage"…
Vehicles exiting Nablus are inspected relatively quickly, so far no sniffer dog.
The entry turnstile is narrow and resists pushing.
DCO representative is not easily identifiable or seen on the ground.
The army does demand 'sterility', supposedly, but just inside the entry turnstile it lets a mass of taxi drivers crowd upon the pedestrians crossing in, hardly leaving them any room to proceed.
The new checkpoint is full of right angles, spick and sparkling metal fencing and square closed areas – but as far as we can see there are no toilets, no water, no place for the women to wait for their husbands and sons. Nothing.
Waiting time varies from 20 minutes to an hour.
After 17:00 it got darker, colder and gloomy, and we retired.
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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