Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za’tara (Tapuah), Tue 9.9.08, Afternoon
Natanya translating.
Today we met Moaid at the checkpoint.
He said that on Thursday 4.9.2008 at about 24.00 his pregnant wife had pains in her stomach. She was in her 7th month. She was bleeding.
There is no ambulance in the village of Kusra (next to Migdaliem). He called his brother who has a car and they went to the hospital in Nablus.
When they got to the checkpoint of Huwwara they saw a group of soldiers behind the building which is called the humanitarian post.
A soldier came after some time and he asked him to allow them to pass the checkpoint so as to take his wife to the hospital as she was bleeding. The soldier said that he had to ask the captain and it was 25 minutes before the captain came and said that they needed a permit.
M. asked from where he was supposed to bring a permit at such an hour. He suggested that he take his work permit or his ID or anything else that he wanted and just to let him go through."
He called an ambulance but when it arrived the baby started to come out. Everywhere there was blood and the father saw that the child was dead. There was nothing to be done when the ambulance came.
The next day the father returned from Nablus with the child in a cardboard box. When he came to the checkpoint the soldier asked what was in the box, The father said, "A dead child.".
The soldier called his friend and asked if he wanted to see a dead child in a cardboard box.
The father told them that the child was dead because of them.
M. speaks a good Hebrew which he learned from his employer in Baka'a. He has a work permit and work. He learned social work for 4 years at the university of El Kuds in Nablus. He said to us, "I was taught to help others. No one helped me."He has a child of nearly two who was born in the 7th month. He intends to make a complaint. We put him in touch with "Yesh Din." and called Raya Y. about this. He is worried that if he makes a report and the matter becomes public he will be made to suffer. Miriam spoke to the commander who said that he had had no report about this incident.
14.02 Marda Both gates are open. Zeia the entrance has been closed for quite a while.
14.08 Za'tara. No cars waiting.
14.21 Beit Furik.
Pedestrians coming from Nablus have to show IDs. And also those entering. There is no pressure.
15.03 Huwwara.
A detainee who had tried not to take his parcels to the x-ray machine detained in the isolation since 14.50 . Some time after we came he was freed.
A group of Scottish tourists tell the commander what they think about the checkpoint.
3 checking areas and the x-ray machine for the young and a side line for women and the elderly.
There is a vehicle for x-raying parcels. No pressure in the car line. The soldier allowed Israeli cars to go in with no problems, We cannot see how many cars are waiting at the exit.
There is a representative of the DCO.
16.20 A detained man in the isolation. He is the owner of a garage in Awarta who went with the Israeli owner of a car to check it out and was caught by a patrol. The Israeli has been freed but he is still in the isolation. The commander says that if he tried to slip through he is a transgressor. Freed at 16.49
17.05 Huwwara the village,
An army jeep in the centre of the village across the road and it is impossible to pass.
17.09 Za'tara.
10 cars wait from the north, i.e. from Nablus and Huwwara. 2 checking areas. The western car lane is empty.
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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