Huwwara
Huwwara. 14 June 2005 Watchers: Yael P., Rachel A., Liriet L. (reporting)On the way to Huwwara we stop at Tapuach Junction. A queue of cars is being checked with relative efficiency. The soldiers are polite and friendly. One detainee and his friend have been waiting for over an hour, sweating and in despair. One of them has Jordanian documents and is on his way to get proper documentation. The soldiers sent his details on but the Shabak, according to them, cannot find any information on the man. When I ask what will happen to him if they do not find any, there is no reply. In this case how long can he be detained? According to the soldier, they are requesting clearer instructions from senior officers but these have not yet been received, and he is not aware of any time limits. In any case he does not intend to hold him for much longer, with or without an answer he will be released soon “we have no patience for games”. While I seek further clarification on the subject with Naomi Lalo the man is released, a quarter of an hour after we arrived.We arrived at Huwwara at 9:15 a.m. There are two detainees who claim to have been held since 7:00 a.m. After questioning the soldiers who refuse, on principle, to talk to us we find out that since they are Israeli citizens they are not the responsibility of the IDF and the police are on their way. I called Ra’ad who said that he would speak to the Brigade but, in principle, it is nothing to do with him. When I ask whom I should contact he told me to call the Ariel Police Station. I did this. In the middle of my speech to the police officer, he informed me that he had not received a request to come to Huwwara today. I apologised nicely and turned to talk to D., the roadblock officer who is not interested in Palestinians and who is hostile towards us. According to him he passed the matter to the Battalion and they told him that they had called the police. As far as he is concerned he had pushed the button he was supposed to push and that is the end of his involvement in the matter. He feels no empathy with the two men who have been in the hut since seven o’clock in the morning. Luckily for us the conversation with Ra’ad had an effect and within a few minutes they receive an order to release the detainee (apparently I had said detainee) “but there is more than one…”. Meanwhile a woman with three children is also detained, she too is Israeli “until the children start to cry it is O.K. They have water (which we had given them, of course)”. And so with one instruction they were all released at 10:30 a.m.A large car from St. John’s Hospital is detained. It appears that Dalia Bassa did not coordinate their entry into Nablus for them. They are held up for almost two hours, Dalia is not available and they are forced to return to Jerusalem. They tell us that they are held up like this each time, except that usually, in the end, they are allowed in. They do not have a permanent permit so they have to coordinate with Dalia each time. We gave them contact details for Doctors for Human Rights, in the hope that someone will be able to help them in future. At present, there is no reply from there either.An American family, staying with their grandfather in Nablus, is on their way to Ramallah. The soldier very politely informs them that they are neither allowed to leave Nablus nor to return there. They are shocked, they do not understand the logic, they explain that all their luggage is in Nablus. “Very sorry”, he says and leaves them stunned, rooted to the ground at the roadblock. Sarah suggests that I approach the D.C.O. officer there; as usual he is polite but cannot be of any help in the matter versus the roadblock officer. Within a few minutes he releases them and explains what they have to do on their way back to Nablus.11:00 a.m.There is another detainee, an Israeli who crossed the roadblock for a moment to present an invoice for a job (conveying cancer patients into Israel). He claims not to have seen the sign. Ostensibly he police are called for him. Three additional Israelis from Beer Sheba are also held, two men and a woman. We take the first man’s telephone number and leave at 11:30 a.m. At 12:30 p.m. he reports that they have all just been released. The police never arrived. In my opinion they were not called, they were held as punishment “you broke the law, now you can wait”.
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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