Huwwara
Huwwara 18 June 2006 Watchers: Sharon V., and Ditza Y. (reporting)Za’atra7:45 a.m.At the roadblock there are five vehicles on their way south.There are two checking lanes for those coming from the direction of Huwwara.The passengers of a bus on its way to Allenby Gate are taken off, their inspection lasts 8 minutes.There are 25 vehicles from Huwwara waiting in the queue.Huwwara8:30 a.m.There are two checking queues and one humanitarian queue. A sergeant, who is prepared to talk to us, tells us that there is no separation today, and is full of praise for the army’s attempts to ease the pressure as far as possible on those crossing the roadblock. (Unfortunately he is unable to pass his rose coloured glasses on to us.)The army continues to restrict us. We are limited in how near to the roadblock we are allowed to get (of course, because of “concern for us”). It is difficult to tell how many people are at the turnstiles. We estimate that there are about 70 – 80 people in the checking queue.Girl soldiers check men, some of them are forced to lift their shirts and take their shoes off in front of them. (This is something we have already seen.)8:57 a.m.We see a young man join the queue and check to see how long it takes him to cross.9:27 a.m.The young man we were monitoring crosses the roadblock (exactly half an hour).9:35 a.m.A man approaches us and tells us that yesterday, at 5:00 p.m., his 17-year-old son was arrested at the roadblock, handcuffed and taken to the DCO. He asks us to find out what has happened to him. We contacted the humanitarian centre and they promised to find out.Huwwara DCO9:50 a.m. There are no people outside, only drivers waiting for those inside.A resident of east Jerusalem who is married to a Palestinian in Nablus comes over to us and spills out his troubles. He has to renew his wife’s permit to stay in Israel at the Interior Ministry annually and he has to come to the DCO every six months to deliver permits. His wife is not entitled to health insurance in Israel.10:00 a.m.Boris from the humanitarian centre contacts us and tells us that the young boy who was arrested yesterday was found to have fifteen bullets in his tools and that he is in the Shomron brigade’s cell. We reported this to his father.Awarta10:10 a.m. Three lorries are waiting. It is quiet.Huwwara10:15 a.m. There are two young men in the lock-up. One of them is released as we get there, the second is being checked after being insolent to a girl soldier, something he denies. From his broken Hebrew we get the impression that he was trying to joke with her.A taxi driver is in the cell; he is handcuffed. The commander, A., seems to be very angry with him, he asserts that the driver crossed the line with his taxi, was unruly and did not comply with the soldiers orders and, according to the commander, that’s what he does every so often. The commander expressed the hope that his taxi licence would be revoked.10:40 a.m. approximatelyWe overhear the commander’s conversation with someone who is probably his commander, the two Palestinians (the one in the cell and the one in the lock-up) are ‘clean’ and he is recommended to release the one in the cell immediately and the one in the lock-up in two hours time. The commander told the man in the cell that he would be released shortly.10:45 a.m.We left the roadblock.
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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