Hawwara
Hawwara and Beth Ibba, Thursday 8.9.05 PMObservers: Lee A., Dana S., Yardena t., Dorit H. (reporting) Hanna K. translatingTapuach Junction – reporting by telephone – Hagar L.14.30 – 17.10All in all this was a sad day, without outstanding shocking events.14.30 Tapuach Junction: few cars, traffic is flowing14.50 Huwwara:The vendors in the market tell us that today they were not pushed around.The pedestrian checkpoint is functioning reasonably well, 3-4 checking posts are manned, the chcking is not excessively thorough and the passage is reasonable.The car queue at the entrance to Nablus flows.The car queue at the exit from Nablus is slow, all the passengers are told to leave the vehicles and their parcels are passed through the x-ray device at the exit. U. the CP commander comes up to us politely and asks to cooperate with us, and that we should approach him with every problem. We wish to ask why all the passengers are made to descend, which slows the process down, and he says that these are the instructions, but agrees to go there and to speed the checking up a little. Indeed the queue diminishes.15.15- A boy of about fifteen is detained, his name appears on the lists. The soldiers wait to get further instructions from the Security Services. Twenty minutes later he is released and goes on his way.15.30- A Palestinian called R. K. member of the Red Cross (ICRC) comes up to us, tells us that he comes twice a day to observe the Huwwara and Tapuach checkpoints and suggests that we call him if we encounter problems. His phone is with me.15.40- A woman and her son wish to leave Nablus, but the son is not registered in the mother’s identity cars. After some negotiations with the checkpoint commander, with the help with an English speaking Palestinian, the checkpoint commander suggests that they call the father and get from him the son’s identity card number, so that it may be checked against the lists. This is indeed done, and mother and son are allowed to proceed.16.10- We leave and drive to Beth Ibba (the Beth Ibba shift was cancelled because Nadim is sick). On the way we pas the Jit Junction – it is empty, there are no soldiers.16.35 Beth Ibba:Very few cars in both directions, the traffic flows.The pedestrians checkpoint is almost empty in both directions. It is not clear why. We say about fifteen minutes and leave.17.10- On our way back in the direction of Kfar Sabba, immediately after passing Kfar Pundak, we come up against an army roadblock composed of a military jeep and two soldiers, near the left turn in to a village called Jinspot (I am jure I’m misspelling the name, none of us knows the village). Lee and I leave the vehicle and go up to find out what the matter is. The soldier who is checking tells us there “is an alert” but he only checks identity cards to make sure that those entering are indeed inhabitants of the village, and he does not detain anybody, nor check belongings. We observe for a few minutes and see that indeed this is so (the second soldier, a reservist, full of hate towards the Arabs and towards us, tries to drive us away, quarrel with us and prevent the other soldiers from talking to us).Tapuach Junction:A telephonic report by Hagar L. (she transported sick people).16.00 -The car queue is very long, it seems there is an enormous load and confusion.16.55- Hagar returned to the junction after she delivered the sick people, about 28 vehicles in the queue, the soldiers talked to her politely and explained that indded there was a problem some time ago, but it happened because of drivers who tried to overtake th queue.17.10 -The queue dissolves, vehicles are not checked and although the passage takes time it looks as if the queue is being dealt with quickly and in a reasonable manner.
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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