Hawwara & Beit Furik
Hawwara, Beit Furiq, 20.7.05, AMWatchers: Miryam S., Tushka K., Nina S. (reporting)7.50 – 11.00Tapuach junction – passage from north very slow. Passage conditins are now described as “separatist” – no passage southwards for people who do not live there except for humanitarian causes. Huwwara is quite and functions in all directions, same at Beit Furiq.Tapuach Junction – passage from the west is fast and smooth. From the south it’s excruciating. Though there aren’t very many cars, when we checked, it took 45 minutes to pass. 2 buses with girls on an outing tried to pass in the humanitarian queue. When it was their turn, they were sent back to stand in the regular queue, another 45 minutes. When they got to the top of the queue we decided to leave for Huwwara where we got 45 minutes later after a visit to Beit Furiq. There, we saw the bus with the girls having been turned back by the soldiers at Tapuach. What a pity the soldiers were not a bit considerate and did not send them back when they stood in the humanitarian queue? We wonder who told the soldiers that their duty was to educate the passing public.A man arrived and was sent back, we talked to him and it transpired he was a teacher on his way to set an exam for students at Salfit. He said he had all necessary docs but was not allowed to continue. Our call to the DCO discovered he should be allowed to go through and they said they will inform the soldiers. We told him to go to the soldiers and get his ID back, but the soldiers told him to stand on the side and wait (though we saw them speaking on the phone to somebody!). 30 minutes later, 2 more calls to the DCO and 2 more calls of the DCO to the soldiers , when at the last one the DCO rep said she will “shout” at the soldiers, resulted at last by the guy getting his ID and going on his way.Generally many passers and cars were turned back north and we could not help them.Just before the Yizhar Junction a road block going south – apparently looking for somebody specific. When we got there, there were a few cars but on the way back there was a buildup. Another queue for those, that queued more then 20 minutes at Huwwara.Beit Furiq – very quite, slow and regular passage. They say they opened at 5 AM.Huwwara – quite, there are a lot of soldiers functioning. Bags are checked on a table next to the ID checkers stand, not in between the turnstiles, so as to reduce the queue. It does make passage between the turnstiles more efficient. Slow passage for cars leaving Nablus. The checkpoint commander asks the checkers, checking incoming cars, to check outgoing ones too, but passage is still slow.At Tapuach, on way back, 23 cars are waiting.
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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