Beit Furik, Huwwara, Tue 2.10.07, Afternoon
Translation: Hanna K.
Huwwara
A detainee in the detention cell, because of "insolence" towards the soldiers, – that's to say he asked the soldiers to speed matters up and enable people to pass quicker – we called the Center, he was released 40 minutes later.
It is difficult to observe the humiliation that the Palestinians have to undergo during their checking at the CP, which is accelerated by the soldiers' behavior:
gum chewing, a relaxed posture, a constant winding of the identity disk around the index finger pointed at the passing people, orders given by a glance of a short movement of the hand, the instruction to take off the belt and to roll the shirt up, often also the trouser down.
The waiting time is over half an hour (we followed with our eyes the last person who joined the queue, until he reached us).
15:35-17:00 –The waiting time increases to 45 minutes.
Shouts that were heard from the crowded queue of waiting people caused the checking process and the passage to stop for long minutes.
According to the CP commander there are no concessions in honor of the Ramadan.
Beit Furik
15:10-15:30 –A very sparse traffic. One car from each direction and people passing without having to wait.
According to the CP commander there are concessions in honor of the Ramaddan: the inhabitants of Salaam, Dir-El-Hatab and Azmut are allowed to pass to Beit Furiq without permits or without the presence of family members. The CP is active until midnight.
On the other hand, when we tried to corroborate the information one of the soldiers answered that "there are no concessions, an information that was confirmed by a Palestinian woman who left the CP and didn't know about the existence of concessions.
Seems like an ingenious invention – there are concessions that the commanders know about but the Palestinians don't (why should they know) and even the soldiers who are actually performing the checking don't know.
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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