Huwwara
Huwwara 2 July 2006 Watchers: Yael B., Tal S. (new member) and Ditza Y. (recording)At Huwwara, in spite of the harsh routine the roadblock commander at least shows some humanity.Beit Furiq: the soldiers behave in an unbearably lordly manner.Za’atra7:40 a.m. There is one car at the western roadblock.A bus is checked at the roadblock on the northern side. The passengers do not alight, just their documents are taken for inspection. There are only a few cars at the roadblock.7:50 a.m.There is no roadblock at Yitzhar Junction.Huwwara8:00 a.m.There are about 50 people at the roadblock and two checkpoints are open.8:05 a.m.A young man who has already crossed the roadblock is called back when it is realised that he was impertinent towards a female soldier. He refuses and breaks out. Soldiers try to get him back by force but the roadblock commander, Gilad, a decent person, who is aware of the Palestinian’s hardships, relates to them and is considerate, comes over and releases the young man.8:10 a.m.A young man leaves the roadblock cursing, an understandable reaction to the waste of time and the humiliation of those crossing – particularly the body check by female soldiers. Immediately afterwards, and completely unrelated, another young man leaves and curses.8:45 a.m.There is a fairly long queue of vehicles, only one inspection lane and no x-ray machine. The passengers and their luggage are inspected manually.8:55 a.m.The driver of an ambulance on its way to bring a patient to hospital in Nablus, has forgotten the exit permit from Nablus. The roadblock commander, after talking to him, lets him through.9:00 a.m.A Palestinian tells us of a 10 year old boy from the town who was apparently playing a kind of a game with a catapult against dogs and cats, who was shot in the leg by soldiers on Friday. The army took him and his whereabouts are unknown. The Palestinian’s speech was not clear and it was difficult to understand him, so we wanted to check out his story and asked another young man about it. His reaction: it’s something that happens every day.Beit Furiq9:30 a.m.The taxi drivers tell us that lately the roadblock is opened between 5 – 5:30 a.m. and closes between 7 – 7:30 p.m.9:35A lorry carrying sheep and destined for Nablus is forced to turn back. We approach the driver to find out why. The roadblock commander to him: if you talk to them you won’t cross next time either. To us: get out of here. The commander turned to the soldiers and said sarcastically: because of the humanitarian organisation (meaning us) no one will cross the roadblock now. (There were some 20 – 25 people at the roadblock.) To verify that we had heard correctly we asked him: are you not letting people cross because we are here? He confirmed this. We contacted the humanitarian centre, they promised to look into and deal with the matter. We were about to leave the roadblock when soldiers came over to us, they had seen that we were taking photographs, and threatened: if we see a photograph of one of the soldiers! Do you want me to smash your camera? They checked that they had not been photographed and left. We left the roadblock.Huwwara10:15 a.m.There are about 40 people at the turnstiles. The humanitarian queue opens from time to time.10:25 a.m.A 26 year old man wants to take his brother, who has been injured in a road accident, to hospital in Ramallah. He is not allowed to cross because his permit has run out. His brother has a head injury which he sustained from a bulldozer at his work place in Tel Aviv. He was hospitalised in Ichilov hospital and while the hospital was prepared to continue caring for him there, they could not obtain the relevant permit from the DCO. There is no hospital in Nablus which deals with head injuries, therefore, he is forced to go to Ramallah for treatment. The accompanying brother, who was anxious and angry, shouted. The commander asked him to lower his voice and calm down (it’s a bit difficult to understand how someone can calm down in such an absurd situation). After the commander looked through his papers he permitted the brothers to cross and requested that they renew their permit for the future.10:45 a.m.We left the roadblock.On our way home: there were 9 vehicles at Za’atra in the direction of Huwwara.At Marda: the eastern gate was open.
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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