Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za’tara (Tapuah), Mon 15.9.08, Morning
Translation: Hanna K.
Do you see civilians here?
Za'tara 06:30 –
There is a little traffic coming from Huwwara. A 17 year old man arrives without IDs and he is not allowed to continue on this way.
Beit Furik
07:15 – there are few people and cars who pass at the CP. The soldiers facilitate the passage because of the Ramadan, the Palestinians tell us. The café doesn't function for the same reason, but despite this, when we arrive, a commotion arise around us.
A man from Beit Furik whose details we have, tells us that on the 8.9, at two o'clock after midnight, soldiers entered his brother's house at Beit Furik and took his brother son, a lad of 19. Till today they haven't heard of him and they don't know where he is kept. We took the details and passed them on to Hanna B. for clarification. The family has two grown up sons and a small daughter. The young detainee is a graduate of high school and intends studying at the university. He has no connection to any organization.
We asked a taxi driver whom we know from the café whether he had ever been in an Israeli prison. He told us that he was "only" 8 days detained in Huwwara. How did this happen? Simply, one day at the CP they detained him, took his ID, handcuffed him, put a flannelette on his eye, ordered a jeep and ….to prison.
There he was kept for 8 days with other detainees, 8 people in a small room, without windows, without a toilet, the food they got was a mixture of everything the soldiers left behind. Nobody interrogated him during all this time. After 8 days he was released, just as he was imprisoned.
Huwwara
08:00 – The Ramadan can be felt at the parking lot. Less cars. The air is devoid of the smell of bakeries and fried food. A stall of wrapped sweets waits for buyers.
At the CP all is as usual. Routine activity. And as usual the CP commander arrives to tell us to retreat to the blue line.
The commander : I ask you to go beyond the line
Z. : Why
The commander : this is military zone and this is an order
Z. :As long as there are civilians here we have the right to be here too.
The commander : Do you see civilians here?
And then begins a lecture of five minutes about the history of the occupation and about human rights at the end of which the commander admits, I am nothing but a small screw in the system.
No further word was uttered regarding a line, white, blue or red.
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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