Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za’tara (Tapuah), Wed 3.9.08, Morning
Translator: Charles K.
Are we getting used to things we once despaired of?
6:12 – Shomron Gate.
The entry to people going east is manned. A policeman tells us to stop. He looks into the car and sends us on our way.
6:35 – Za'tara.
No cars at the checkpoint coming from the west. Eight cars in line from the north, and one lane is open.
6:42 – We left
6:45 – A border police jeep is parked opposite the entrance to Beita.
6:54 – A border patrol jeep is parked at the northern end of Huwwara's main street. The policemen stop Palestinian cars carrying passengers and check their ID's. Four cars were detained while we stood there. We timed how long the inspection took – 5 to 10 minutes. We left after all four vehicles had been released. At the end of our shift the jeep was no longer there.
7:10 – Huwwara CP
Few pedestrians at the checkpoint itself. Two lanes open, and the x-ray machine is operating.
Very soon more pedestrians show up, and at any given time there are 20 people on line.
7:37 – An additional lane is opened. "Ta'al hon, ta'al hon," one of the soldiers cries to the Palestinians, and right after that "Irjah la'warra." It turns out that something in that lane isn't working. The soldiers start reading numbers aloud from the ID's of those passing through.
The magnemometers beep. The usual inspection procedure: emptying pockets, removing belts…
7:38 – The DCO representative appears.
The soldier from the vehicle lane is sent somewhere. Cars wait.
7:41 – An ambulance arrives, followed by another taxi. The car waits a short time.
At 7:42 the soldier returns to his station. The commander and another soldier stride over to the parking lot. We follow them. The commander has the ID's of two people, and tells them to stand near the entry point to Nablus. The driver says they're on their way to Ramallah, then, in a tone of complaint, that even though he lives in Nablus he doesn't have permission to bring the car in. He's also an ambulance driver working for the Red Cross. From his answers to our questions, it turns out that he drove on the apartheid road.
8:15 – We left; there's nothing we can do to help.
A man in the parking lot points to the line of cypress trees visible beyond the open area, and asks us to drive over to that road to Awarta. He says that every day a jeep with police stands there, they stop cars, make people get out, stand them up with their hands against the wall and go through their pockets. We promised to drive over there.
8:26 – Beit Furik
Five cars on line; we time the wait. The one we timed took 7 minutes to reach the checkpoint. Few pedestrians, and two lanes open.
8:47 – We left.
As we promised that man this morning, we drove to Huwwara via Awarta, but there was no jeep anywhere along the way at this hour.
9:30 – The jeep that sat opposite Beita this morning moved to the other side of the road, and is now standing next to an abandoned house covered with camouflage netting.
9:37 – 10 cars coming from the north at Za'tara.
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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