Huwwara Beit Furik
Huwwara, Beit Furik, Thursday 11.5.2006 PMObservers: Naveh M. Yehudiet L. (reporting)Natanya translating. Limitations 15-30 years of age from Nablus, tulkarm and Jenin.A new form of punishment ( we are fairly new at the checkpoints) confiscation of car keys and license, ids.14.15 -Road 5, the village of Zawiyeh. Borokin and the industrial area of Barkan permanent checkpoints.14.35 Za’atara – from the west 18 cars of various kinds, one checking post, from the north from Hawarra 15 cars of various kinds, 3 areas of checking , at each one two soldiers. No detainees.At the entrance of Beita ( just in front of Jawarra at the right hand side) a blockage. Hawarra north ( checkpoint of Yizhar) 30 cars.14.45 Hawarra. A long line of cars but we cannot estimate how many from where we stand. The pedestrian line is fairly short ( only the last part of the hut). Two checking posts are manned and those passing them hold up their shirts and the bottom of their trousers above the shoes. Waiting time about 15 minutes. Every now and again the humanitarian line opens and women and older men pass without being checked. The commander M. replies patiently – the usual orders concerning 15-30 years old from Jenin, Tulkarm and Nablus cannot pass. At 16.00 hardly any line and people pass quickly.Six young men tried to by pass the checkpoint and have been detained for an hour. In the beginning they do not take our questions seriously but afterwards understand that we are on their side ( we phoned the brother of one of them who speaks Hebrew and he expressed his fear for his brother. The commander says their ids are being checked. D. the DCO representative a number of times to speed up the process. Before he leaves he promises that when he gets to the DCO he will check what is happening. We go to Beit Furik and when we get back about half an hour later they have been freed. They had been detained from 13.00 to 16.00.16.00 Beit Furik a few cars and the soldiers do not answer our questions.16.30 At north Hawarra there are few cars and a minibus has been detained. They took the driver’s keys and papers as punishment because there was a disturbance in the line. He tried through us to get his keys back so that someone could take his passengers to Salfit but is refused. The commander at the sentry post says that the papers are being checked and he has no time to talk to us. We asked the DCO to check and the driver calls another cab to take his passengers and gives them back the money they paid him for the trip. He gets into his minibus, lies down and says that that is his luck for the day. I gave him my phone number and asked him to let me know when freed and by 22.00 he has still not phoned.17.15 Za’atara. 56 cars from Hawarra, 2 posts are manned and in each two soldiers. The driver has to stop 10 metres from the post to which he takes his is , leaves it with the soldier who is checking and goes back to his car. Then he is called to come with his car to the post where cars are sometimes checked thoroughly and sometimes not. Form the western side are 20 cars.Two Israeli Arab, a man and woman, in a car with a yellow number plates took the Palestinian husband of the girls in their car. The three are detained until 15.30. They did not know that they were not allowed to take a Palestinian in their car. Their ids and car keys were taken from them. We left them our phone number but until 22.00 they had not contacted us.
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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