Huwwara
Huwwara, Monday 28.3.05, PMObservers: Riva B., Tzvia S., Ruti K. (reporting)We set out in the direction of Tapuah. Right after Oranit, on highway #5, a military “hammer” vehicle and soldiers were spread out on the road. We didn’t stop. Next to the village of Zeitah, there was an unexpected roadblock which caused a traffic jam, including Israeli vehicles; military jeeps were stopping all the cars, but within a little while, the jam was finished and traffic was flowing.At Tapuah Junction we counted 10 cars going south; didn’t see any detainees.We arrived at Huwwara North and, as soon as we arrived, we saw legs within the detaintion cell and a soldiers with loaded rifle in front of the entrance; it seemed to us he was beating the prisoner. We tried to give him a warning, but then 2 more soldiers came, opened the door, we saw the prisoner handcuffed inside, but they began to beat him. We shouted at them (of course, this made a big impression!) and reported to the humanitarian hotline; Ra’ad didn’t answer but we were told he would look into it. The prisoner was immediately taken to the GSS. The soldiers said he had tried to grab their weapons. However, all the Palestinians said that he was “crazy”, a disturbed boy. Unfortunately, we weren’t quick enough to photograph. The passage through was going more or less quickly, the number of detainees in the shed kept growing, all of them students from A-Najah whose IDs were being checked slowly. Of course, the soldiers claimed that they had received an alert.A Palestinian woman from East Jerusalem, with a blue ID, was detained and taken to a police jeep. Her treatment was very fast, and the policeman was quite empathetic. Also the owner of a fance SUV car was detained, with a U.S. passprt and a Palestinian ID, who had gone to Nablus and lives in Ramallah and Chicago. We tried to help him; at the humanitarian hotline they promised to take care of it and speak with him directly. We don’t know if he received a permit to return to Ramallah. It was already 15:30, and we were on our way to Beit Iba, but not before we saw all the students released with a magic wand.
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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