Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za’tara (Tapuah), Wed 3.10.07, Afternoon
Translation: Hanna K.
13:30 – 16:45
13:30 Za'atara:
From north to south about 8 cars, from East to West 15 cars.
Burin:
A CP next ti which there is a hammer.
13:45 Huwwara:
Crowdedness at the CP is terrible, noise and shouts of the Palestinians and the soldiers, there are three checking lanes and one humanitarian queue, but at times some of the posts are not manned, it was not clear whether this was due to a formal break or whether the soldiers just left the post and took a recess. This of course increased the crowdedness and the nervousness of the people in the queues, people who are anyway very hungry, thirsty and tired at the end of a fasting day.
The soldiers were on the whole relatively courteous, the commander. lieutenant M. an affable person who listened to us and answered politely, but even so there was a number of soldiers who behaved rudely towards the persons passing at the CP and towards us. Exceeded all the others a woman soldier called D. whose screeches could be heard from afar and whose checking tempo was very slow.
When we arrived there was no DCO representative on the spot, and after a few telephone conversations with E. from the DCO Y. arrived and helped us with a few cases we referred to him but after a few minutes he announced that he had to go somewhere else, but he didn't leave a telephone number and said he could be reached via E. from the DCO, which later proved to be untrue.
At 2:45pm the car queue became very long, and at 3:30 when we returned from Beit Furiq there was a terrible congestion in the checking queue and the noise and shouting were deafening, in the detention cell there were a few detainees who were held there because they left the queue. The persons who left after being checked were furious and told us about the disgraceful attitude of the soldiers, and they mentioned especially a red-headed soldier whose name they didn't know (the CP commander didn't know to whom they referred), one of the soldiers emerged with a torn bag and said the soldiers had done this.
Suddenly the noise and the shouts became more intense, the passages were closed and two bound man were led by the soldiers to the detention cell, one of them was on the verge of fainting and the other wounded in his head.
The people who were on the spot said he had been hit by the soldiers. All This happened without the presence of a DCO representative. We phoned Ellen as Y. had told us to, but she claimed she had not way of contacting him.(we herewith address colleagues who are able to reach the higher echelons and ask them to try and do something in the matter, it is not possible that in such a sensitive place, expecially in the Ramaddan period, there should be no DCO representative the whole day long).
We contacted the humanitarian Center and they promised to take care of the matter, after a short while the company commander appeared (we don't know whether this was as a result of our phone call) there was an investigation and we saw the wounded man point to one of the soldiers. At the end of the investigation the wounded man was released from his handcuffs but was put into the detention cell. When we asked why, the company commander said he had to complete the inverstigation. We do hope it was a fair one. During the event the passage were closed, a further aggravation of the terrible suffering that the population that has to pass through the CPs has to undergo.
3:15 Beit Furik:
The traffic is sparse. We are told that there is no passage for people who are not inhabitants of Beit Furiq and Beit Dajan.
16:46 Za'atara:
The CP is nearly 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.
Ronit Dahan-RamatiJun-9-2026Za'atara (Tapuach Junction). The Temple Flag Above a Station
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