Huwwara, Beit Furik, Tapuach Junc.
Huwwara, Beit Furik, Tapuach Junction, Wednesday 1.3.06, AMNina S., Yael H., Ilana H., Tushka K., Hanna A. (reporting)There are physical changes at the CP of Huwwara. Cab drivers are being punished. The DCO rep. is active and takes responsibility.7.50 – Tapuach JunctionJenin area citizens may not go south. There are a few cars queuing from the West “They have got used to this, so they do not come” says the soldier.From the north there are 55 cars queuing and people tell us about leaving Nablus at 5 am. They have traveled a distance of no more then 15 km. in 3 hours and this is their 3rd CP (so far). A teacher teaching in Ramalla says she is about 1.5 hours, late every day, and her pupils have to wait out of doors for her.One man says “we live like in hell. The dogs have a better life than us”. And there are others that were angry and frustrated and told us to go away as we do not help.There were border police there busy teaching the Palestinians how to behave and while they themselves were very rude.We called the DCO office who said their rep is on the way.8.15 – Yzhar junction, a flying CP.24 cars, a gun pointing to the face of the passing passengers, cars are not stopped.8.15 – HuwwaraAt Huwwara south there are border police watching and sporadically checking.In the north, building works are taking place. The ground is leveled, fence parts are scattered on part of the path. A small boy falls over them and cries. At the end of our watch the CP commander and another try to move these parts and get them out of the way. Checking stations in the turnstile area are being erected. From them the soldiers will operate the turnstiles with a push of a button. More barriers and more grills and more fences and in their midst a state of the art “Humane turnstile”.Upon our arrival there was one detainee, a cab driver that has passed the “line”. He is being “checked” but he was told that he will stay here all day. His ID and keys were taken. The DCO rep. said this is the decision of the checking unit. Before they left they checked again with the CP commander what is going to happen. After 2 hours we called the DCO office. 20 minutes later he was released. Though stopping people to punish them is prohibited, just before we left 2 more cab derivers were caught for the same ‘offense’ and were sent to the detainees enclosure. They would not give us their telephone numbers to enable us to follow up what is happening. The CP commander assured us they will be released soon. Happy is the believer.Every now and then a third checkup was opened for women and old people and a second one for ID checking. There is a steady stream of people in and out of Nablus.At some point a dog has joined the check of cars leaving Nablus. People are asked to leave their car and stand in line, the dog goes in and out of the car, climbs on the seats and the boot, real thorough. We timed it took one hour for a car to get through the CP.At the in going check of cars 2 soldiers. While they check cars they also check some pedestrians going in and handicapped ones leaving on wheelchairs. This stops the checking of the ingoing cars, as they take their time and ask this elderly legless person a lot of questions. To our comments to the soldiers about detaining the invalid they tell us to “mind our own business”. There are pedestrians that arrive from the south and have to undergo even a physical check. We saw a soldier, who could not be bothered to bend down, checking the in comer’s legs by sort of kicking them.One youngster has ha postcard taken from him. On it pictures (we couldn’t see whose, but maybe of his leaders?). It was placed in the soldier’s pocket – a trophy? After he and his friend also kept 2 ladies, in a UN car, for a flirt we asked the CP commander to keep them in check.11.00 – we left Huwwara8.45 – 9.15 – Beit Furik2 of us drove over. Thin passage. Inconsistent checking of the in goers. Some are asked to raise their shirts/jackets, other not. Going out through the magnometer they have to lift their tops.A cab arrived; the soldier asks the driver how he is today, the other soldiers asks politely if the driver can open the boot. This can happen too.11.05 Yizhar Junction. The CP is still there, 8 cars waiting.11.20 – Za’atara, 26 cars waiting from the north.And next to the deserted house opposite Marda, as usual a military car (that was not there in the morning) in observance.
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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