Huwwara
Huwwara, Tuesday 11.7.2006 PMObservers: Fatchia I. Ariela C. (reporting)Natanya translating.14.20 -On our way to Huwwarra we passed Za’atara where about 25 cars were waiting in the direction of the south. At the checkpoint of Yizhar 30 cars.14.25 – we arrived at the checkpoint of Hawarra where about 10 cars from the direction of Nablus were waiting and passing quite quickly. At the pedestrians lane there was much pressure and women passed in the humanitarian lane together with the older men fairly quickly.When we arrived a woman approached us and asked us to help to get her husband through quickly as he suffers from the kidney disease. The commander. second lieutenant U. helped us to find him and get him through quickly.Besides the humanitarian lane there was also an ordinary one in which the young men were carefully checked including raising their shirts. We asked the commander to open another lane which he did after a few minutes.Every now and again young men were put into the detainees enclosure usually for a short period and this was largely due to Urie who was very attentive to our requests.Many women were leaving Nablus and passing quickly but then had to wait for their menfolk at the side. One woman with a baby in her arms waited over an hour for her husband and only when second lieutenant Uri intervened was he brought up in the line. She told us she would have to wait at two more checkpoints, Yizhar and Za’atara.Suggestion. Maybe it is possible to open a line for families.16.45 -Two young men detained. They had tried to bypass the checkpoint through the fields and had been caught. U. said that they were not his responsibility.17.15 – We left
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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