Huwwara
Huwwara, Thursday 9 September 2004 AM.Nava A, Asnat O, Nili L, Rina T – jointly reporting6.55: a surprise checkpoint on the road between Ariel and the Tapuach junction, at the cross-roads near Kfar Marda and Kfar Zeita. About 8 Palestinian vehicles line up at the checkpoint.7.00: the regiment responsible for the Tapuah and Huwwara checkpoints has changed. They are still Paratroopers, but the atmoshpere is much calmer than before. The rifles are still evident, but the soldiers’ fingers are no longer tightly held near the triggers, and the guns point lower down towards the ground, and not directly to the hearts of the people being checked… The soldiers seem more mature and more confident. The dialog between them and the Palestinians is to-the-point and is not hostile.At the Northern checkpoint things are calm. The soldiers do not try to show the Palestinians “who’s the boss”, and concentrate only on doing their job. As sad and terrible as this sounds – this in itself represents a major improvement.Things go calmly also at the Southern checkpoint. The checkpoint commander refuses to tell us his name, but does answer our questions. One event requires our involvement: a father to a girl suffering from Thalismia (a blood disease) has been detained for over an hour. The man has a certificate from a medical organisation confirming his daughter’s illness. We called the DCO and 5 minutes later the man was released.Two employees carrying magnetic cards from their employers were detained. They claimed to have passed through the checkpoints in the past without any problems. One of them, an employee of the Palestinian phone company Paltel, was later released and passed through to Nablus. The other man, an emplpoyee of the Pharmaceutical company Azory, was detained and later sent back to where he came from.On the way back home, at the Tapuach junction, there’s a long line of cars on the side of the road. Palestinian vehicles line up bumper to bumper, while Israeli vehicles continue travelling on the road itself. The separation is clear to all, but one Palestinian taxi driver is surprised to see us joining ‘their’ line and waiting with them. A conversation develops. He tells us that he spends a lot of time this way every morning – waiting an hour, two hours or more on occasion. Again the question: “What – aren’t we human beings too?”As we reached the checkpoint one of the soldiers says: “Well done! What you’re doing is very important.”We wish us all a happy new year – plain, simple and good.
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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Ronit Dahan-RamatiAug-24-2026Huwara: The school on the outskirts of town and an outpost hidden among the trees
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