Huwwara, Mon 22.3.10, Afternoon
Translation: Hanna K.
The Za'tara (Tapuah) junction is empty.
Huarra chekpoint :
The hour of the knives:When we arrive we find two handcuffed Palestinians in a shed at the entrance to the parking.One lies on the pavement, face downwards, his hands are handcuffed from behind. The other sits handcuffed. There are soldiers and a police vehicle on the spot.
A policemen wearing a skullcap (we couldn't get his name) interrogates with loud shouts in Arabic the bound man in the shed.
Petahya translates: you brought the knife in order to attack a soldier, you brought the knife to hurt a soldier!
Suddenly a piece of plastic material is thrown out of the shed.
A photograph from a short distance shows a sharp piece of plastic – is this the knife in question? The policeman is full of vigour and enthusiasm, find the time to come up to us and to threaten us with loud screams that we obstruct police activity during a terrorist activity. (?)
The searching of the two Palestinians continues and suddenly there is a shout – "Another knife!"At a certain moment there is another event in the car checking posts which we observe from afar. Again two Palestinians are handcuffed.The policeman runs from one point to the other, is very agitated and investigates with the help of a Druze interpreter, a border policeman.
Has the arrest, handcuffing and investigation of suspects suddenly become a police assignment?In the meantime DCO and army vehicles arrive. In the car area one of the detainees is released, and the other is put into a vehicle and is driven away.
In the parking shed the investigation is drags on and on, while the policeman doesn't stop rushing around and giving orders.An hour and a half later we leave.
On the way to the square to meet Nadim/
The DCO jeep stops near us, "did you see the knives?" we ask,
"I haven't seen any knives" he replies.
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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