Huwwara
Huwwara. 12 June 2005 Watchers: Yael B., Ditza Y (reporting)A normal day at the roadblock: nothing unusual happening. Another routine day of occupation that makes the lives of the Palestinians difficult and delays them on the roads.8:00 a.m. Huwwara market: renewed activity except that the traders tell us that the soldiers have given them half an hour to leave the place and, if they don’t, the soldiers will come and remove them.Huwwara roadblock8:10 a.m.Few people cross the roadblock but they cross quickly. No one is detained. Vehicles are checked.A minibus travels in the direction of Nablus and all the passengers are checked. One of the women does not have an I.D. card and is not allowed to continue her journey.9:20 a.m.There are about 20 people queuing to be checked. The checks are carried out quite quickly.Pedestrians crossing into Nablus are not checked, contrary to the thorough checks of documents of those entering the town by vehicle.9:30 a.m.Two children want to leave Nablus and are not allowed to because they are not accompanied by their parents.An Israeli surgeon who works in a hospital in Nablus comes into the town every Sunday in his car. He has all the necessary documentation except that his name, which should be on the list of those allowed in, simply does not appear. He telephones Dalia Bassa who promises to deal with the situation. After some 15 to 20 minutes during which no answer has been received, we call her too. The matter is rectified in a few minutes.9:50 a.m.About 20 people at the roadblock.A Palestinian who lives in Refadia wants to get to Hirba Bada, he has a home there and his children and grandchildren live there. He is not allowed through because of the closure.An American woman who had no permit for Nablus is not allowed through.We noticed that a border police soldier at the checkpoint speaks fluent Arabic and we remarked on it to him approvingly. A., who appears to be in charge, instructs us not to talk to the soldiers.10:30 a.m.A man in need of dialysis is accompanied by his elderly mother both of whom are infirm. They support each other and advance with great difficulty. We tried, unsuccessfully, to get them a lift to the taxis.An elderly respectable man is not prepared to go through the checking procedure and crosses outside the turnstiles without showing his papers to the soldiers. A soldier approached, calmly we must say, and quietly checked his papers.11:20 a.m.The father of a deaf boy arrives at the roadblock with his son, as he had previously arranged with Yael. She explained the possibilities of surgery in Israel to him as well and the procedures involved. She also informed him of the contacts she had made with the Peres Peace Institute and the possibility that they will pay part of the cost.11:30 a.m.Huwwara market: the stalls are still there; the army did not carry out its threat to remove the traders.Yitzhar roadblock11:40 a.m.12 vehicles are parked there. Two drivers tell us angrily that they have been waiting at the roadblock for two hours. They assert that when a bus arrives at the roadblock the checks of the vehicle and the passenger take even longer. We stayed at the roadblock for a few minutes; the checks took place at a satisfactory pace. One of the drivers claimed that when we are there the soldiers speed up the pace of the checks.11:40 a.m.We left the roadblock on completion of our shift.
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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