Habla, Huwwara, Za’tara (Tapuah), Tue 22.11.11, Afternoon
A heart-to-heart talk with a man who works for his living
This is what he said: "Meeting a humanist, a man of spirit and vision"
. 12:30 –
AWhen you greet me, you bring the two peoples close together. The sea is vast and ithe water is clear, but even a small amount of garbage can lead to wrong impression that the whole sea is polluted. Meeting a cruel soldier or a conniving settler makes people generalize. We shouldn't ask who is the man. We should ask what is the man. Rather than saying this is a Jew or this is an Arab, we should say this is a good man. Where did I pick up my Hebrew? – On the road, not at school. Too much happened to the Jewish people. They were burned, they were strangled and slaughtered. A man like Hitler shouldn't exist. The question is how it is possible that some people, of the same Jewish people that suffered so much, can act with cruelty. In the same way that the Americans bred Bin Laden, the Israeli regime has given rise to the Hamas.
How is it possible to kill? You see a child and you say 'this is a child, he needs to live!' You see a man and you say 'this is a man, he needs to live!' Jews and Arabs need to stay at each other's guest houses, get to know each other and make friends. We have to establish a common university. Students who share a curriculum and study together beautiful and beneficial subjects cannot hate each other. This land could be the best and the most wonderful place in the world, a place everyone would want. It could outshine France, even Paris!"
Habla 13:10 –
According to one of the people we have talked to, the gate was open in the morning from 06:00 to 09:00 but permit owners from both this gate and Eliyahu Passage prefer to cross here, at Eliyahu Gate the checks are exhausting and humiliating, not to mention the dogs. A car coming from the southern gate is sent back. Its owner has probably no passage permit for Habla. Most of the vehicles at this hour are loaded with plants. For the first time we have seen here a United Nations vehicle but we haven't found out yet the reason for its being here. Eliyahu Gate 13:45 –
From a distance we see nothing. 13:50 –
The road to Qalqiliya is open. 14:00 –
Entering Sufin is limited to residents and those that are entitled to. 14:05 – At the entrance to Azzun, there is no checkpoint and there are no soldiers, neither Israeli nor Palestinians. 14:30 –
Yizhar, surprisingly, is not fortified. The writing in Arabic has been erased from the signs at the entrance to the settlement. Instead, the words 'Revenge' and 'Death to the Arabs" stand up clearly up there. Huwwarra checkpoint 15:00 –
A soldier informs us that we are forbidden to observe the place, then, adding that all civilians are. Traffic is lively without delays. Tapu'ah Junction 15:30 –
Although there are soldiers here, no inspections are conducted.
Habla
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Habla CP (1393)
The Habla checkpoint (1393) was established on the lands of the residents of Qalqilya, on the short road that
connected it for centuries to the nearby town of Habla. The separation barrier intersects this road twice and cut off the residents of Qalqilya from their lands in the seam zone.(between the fence and the green line).
There is a passage under Road 55 that connects Qalqilya to the sabotage This agricultural barrier is used by the farmers and nursery owners established along Road 55 from the Green Line and on both sides of the kurkar road leading to the checkpoint.
This agricultural checkpoint serves the residents of Arab a-Ramadin al-Janoubi (detached from the West Bank), who pass through it to the West Bank and back to their homes. The opening hours (3 times a day) of this agricultural checkpoint are longer than usual, about an hour (recently shortened to 45 minutes), and are coordinated with the transportation hours of a-Ramadin children studying in the occupied in the West Bank.
Nina SebaAug-18-2025Habla: The gate is in the process of closing
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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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