Huwarra
Huwwara 20 March 2005 Watchers: Yael B., Shelley M., Shirley P., Einav (guest), reporting: Ditza Y. 8:00 a.m.The southern roadblock is not active. It is good to see a deserted roadblock – except that the joy is too early, since some of those crossing in the direction of Nablus – those who look suspicious – are checked at the northern roadblock. Those checking – soldiers from the border police.At the north: about 15 soldiers are at the roadblock. Light traffic.One person is held in the lock-up, a student. He claims that he has been there an hour and a half; according to the soldiers he has only been there since 7:20 a.m. He was supposed to take an examination at 8:00 a.m., but he was held because he pushed a soldier when angered that they took his documents to be checked. According to him the soldier scratched him and bent his spectacles, and there are indeed signs of a superficial wound on his cheek and under his mouth and his spectacles were bent. We approach the roadblock officer, B., who says that he is the soldier who confronted the student and says that he did not touch him, and in any case the student is being punished and not being allowed to cross – which is illegal. We call the D.C.O., they promise that they will deal with the situation and, indeed, after a few minutes, at 8:50 a.m., the student is released.The unstable iron hurdles which the previous week fell on small children twice, are still in place. One of them is supported by a sandbag which was put there by a soldier last week, after we drew his attention to it. The second screen is inclined to fall if touched, and we show it to the D.C.O. representative A. His response: does it disturb you so much? Yes, indeed it does and Shelley did not wait for the army’s benevolence and dragged a sandbag from the soldiers’ position and attached it to the hurdle.9:15 a.m.2 brothers, aged 15 and 24, are held. They have come from Nablus and are on their way home to Huwwara. The elder brother is released after his papers are checked. The younger is left, the soldiers claim he is not related to his brother according to the registration. The elder brother went to Huwwara to bring his brother’s birth certificate. He returned at 10.30 a.m. After a close inspection of the paper it was found to be in order and they were allowed to go on their way.9:20 a.m.6 students from the village Suwaya who are on their way to Nejah University in Nablus are held to be checked. They are released at 9:55 a.m.An Israeli Palestinian wants to enter Nablus. The D.C.O. officer, Husam, helps him to coordinate his entry into the town.10:10 a.m.2 Palestinians have an appointment at the Shabak in Huwwara at 10:00 a.m., but are held up. We draw Hussam’s attention to this, as he is the person who cares, and he releases them.Another person held is an unusual Palestinian man: he is not prepared to take the occupation and the behaviour of the soldiers for granted and protests and provokes them. When asked at the checkpoint to show his document, he threw it at the soldier and when she demanded that he open it, he responded: what, am I working for you? If you want it, then open it yourself. After that he cursed the soldier in Arabic and was put into the lock-up, as a punishment. A soldier tried to teach him to behave: is that the way to speak to a soldier! And then: you will be released – go and say sorry to her. When the Palestinian refused to apologise he said: do you know how long you will be held here now? When we try to intervene, the soldier says: he should not treat us like dogs. We did not know whether to laugh or cry. The reliability of reports: the officer approached because it had been reported to him that the Palestinian had raised his hand to the soldier (which had not happened). With the intervention of the D.C.O. officer the man was released in the end at 10.40 a.m.10:50 a.m.No one held. A fair amount of traffic in the direction of Nablus, no one is checked after the border police leave.We complete our shift.Beit Furik, about 9:30 a.m. – very few crossing the roadblock. Nothing in particular happening.
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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