Huwara: The bypass road opened but settlers use main street in order to provoke and create confrontations
Visit at O.’s Habla nursery. The DCO has revoked entry permits to the seamline zone for O.’s family members, claiming they didn’t come to work. Although some of them own the land, the occupation surveils them and forces them to cross the checkpoint and get to work.
Besides this, everything is horrible, although the soldiers at the checkpoint are alright, not making extra trouble…
There is a space between the red and the yellow gates so army jeeps can enter and exit Azzun. Only they can. Not the inhabitants and their guests.
Every day there are “events” at Azzun – raids and arrests by the army. We have not managed to enter and visit the local council ever since war broke out.
On Thursday May 15th, Tze’ela Guez from Bruchin settlement – a Jewish religious community – was murdered on her way to the hospital to deliver her baby. The murderer managed to escape and the army has declared collective punishment of all the villages in the area: Burqin, Bidiya, Deir Ballut, Kafr A Dik, Hares and others. The entire area is very tense and the council members were not interested in seeing us.
We continue eastward on Road 55.
Army inspections create an endless traffic jam – vehicles are stuck on their way for hours. This too is a way to harass and demonstrate who’s boss.
Round and round around Nablus
We drive southward to Huwara although we visited their townhall on December 24, 2024 – they agree to meet us again. All the other officials do not. The situation is so tense that they prefer staying away from Israelis.
First we are met by the Deputy Mayor, the Mayor joins later.
After the Huwara bypass road was opened, costing many millions, the settlers from Yitzhar and Itamar use Huwara’s main street in order to provoke and create confrontations. About a month ago soldiers suspected a young man from Beita of throwing stones at Road 55. He was shot dead and they are still holding the body. Why? What are they trying to hide?
About a week ago, on the Day in Support of Gaza (I didn’t know of such a day in the West Bank), the mayor’s nephew walked on the main street. Settlers ran him over and he is still hospitalized, unconscious.
At the opening of this road the army placed a sign forbidding settlers from entering the town. The settlers took it down immediately. The army orders the “lords of the land” what to do? What is the world coming to…
The Civil Administration does not allow the townhall to develop the town. It prohibits the paving of roads and when they see heavy equipment, they confiscate it. Huwara has 10,000 dunams – 7,000 in Area C and 3,000 in Area B. Old neighborhoods more than 30 years old belong to Area C. And they cannot approach their own houses.
Sanctions are imposed on the town – they receive half the amount of water they used to get. Huwara’s water source is controlled by Mekorot (Israeli water company) like all the wells in the West Bank. The entire region suffers from an unreasonable allotment of water – not that water is lacking. The wells are full, the settlers have no problem. They receive plenty of water for domestic use and field irrigation. We are talking about 50,000 persons suffering from a shortage of water for domestic use.
Shavei Shomron – a religious settlement – had a huge well that supplied water to the Nablus inhabitants. settlers came and incinerated the electric system that made it work. No one was arrested, as usual.
In Huwara, half the shops are closed. Before the war the town and its businesses prospered. Customers came from all over for shopping and eating out. Ben Gvir’s policy to choke Huwara began to be implemented even before the war broke out. In a talk with the DCO chief he admitted that he cannot do a thing to change this. The orders come straight from the government.
A new settlement is being established on Huwara land. 6 settlers took 500 dunams on the mountain and live there in 6 tents. When will the state build them easy access roads?
Location Description
'Azzun
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Azoun (updated February 2019)
A Palestinian town situated in Area B (under civil Palestinian control and Israeli security control),
on road 5 between Nablus and Qalqiliya, east of Nabi Elias village. The inhabitants are allowed to construct and improve infrastructures. The Separation Fence has confiscated lands belonging to the town's people. In 2018 olive tree groves owned by one of its inhabitants were confiscated for the sake of paving a road to bypass Nabi Elias. Azoun population numbers 13,000, its economic state dire. Its infrastructures are poor, neglect and poverty rampant. In the meantime, the town council has completed paving an internal road for the inhabitants' welfare.
Because of its proximity to the Jewish settler-colony of Karnei Shomron and its outposts, the town suffers the intense presence of the Israeli army, especially at nighttime: soldiers enter homes, arrest suspects, trash the house and sometimes ruin it, as they do in numerous places in the West Bank. At times a checkpoint closes the entrance to the town, so no one can come in or get out.
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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.
Ronit Dahan-RamatiApr-25-2025Habla Checkpoint: system of gates
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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)
.Shoshi AnbarMay-18-2025Huwara: The old houses in Area C
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