Huwwara, Beit Furik
Huwwara/Beit Furiq, 27.4.05, AMWatchers: Eilat B., Nina S. (reporting)Philip (Guest)A quiet watch with no outstanding occurances. Passage is easy and no queues are forming.We drove through Beit Jit junction where on the way back were roadblocks with queues and much irritation.8.00 – Huwwara, during the whole shift no detainees. Fast and free passage and no more then 10 persons ever in the queue when at some times nobody was waiting.8.30 – Beit Furiq – the checkpoint activity as in Huwwara, At times a small queue forms when a car arrives from Beit Furiq, it disperses fast. We visited the Taxi drivers and there, on coffee we were offered we heard the story of the 70 year old sheep herd that was herding his ship on his land near an outpost of Elon Moreh. Some youngsters with a hefty grownup settler arrived, in a jeep, and hit the herd with wooden planks and a hoe and wounded his head and arm. He managed to reach his family who took him to the checkpoint. There the soldiers bandaged him and called an Ambulance. He had to wait for 2 hours for the police who took his testimony, in which he identified his tormentor on a photograph. Apparently this is the second time the same hooligan has wounded some Palestinian. The wounded man was then sent to hospital in Nablus where he is still recuperating. We have all his details as well as those of his family members for future contact.I have given all the info to Dina G. from “Yesh Din”. If anyone of us has more ideas of what to do and how to follow up the police so this becomes a court case and maybe publicize it– they have my full blessing. The nephews said they tried to call Betzelem but there was no answer. 9.00 – We returned to Huwwara – all is quiet.11.15 – 11.40 – on the way back at Jit junction there are roadblocks from Huwwara to the junction and from Beit Iba too. We stopped. Passage was very slow, about 20 cars in one direction and 15 in the other. There were a few detainees that were released after their ID’s were checked.According to the drivers they were waiting more then an hour, seemed exaggerated to me but passage was very slow. We called the DCO and asked for more soldiers to be sent to speed up the checking (there were 2 soldiers in each direction) but we could not stay long enough to see if this has helped, Raed’s phone did not answer. A driver that arrived from Jenin said this was his 5th road block and as he has 2 young persons in his cab he is stopped at each block to check their id’s, after they stand in the queue for ages.
Huwwara
See all reports for this place-
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)
.
Ronit Dahan-RamatiAug-24-2026Huwara: The school on the outskirts of town and an outpost hidden among the trees
-
