Huwwara North AM
HUWWARA NORTH, Saturday 14 August 2004 AMObservers: Amalia V., Michal S. (alternately), Hava H. (reporting) colour=red>There was still something of the pleasant morning chill left in Huwwara on Saturday morning— and since it was just after the killing of an Itamar resident [Itamar is an Israeli settlement in the Occupied Territories, a few kilometres east of Huwwara], we knew in advance what to expect, but there are always surprises.The new revolving iron gates have already been described. Somebody probably made a profit on them, but nobody checked whether they were suited to people carrying parcels. They are not, and there is consequent confusion.On the other hand – we encountered the dog and the woman dog-trainer today for the first time. From today, animal lovers can also find suitable employment in the Israeli army. It worked like this: The soldiers diverted all vehicles – private or commercial – to a side track, ordered the passengers to disembark and stand aside with their backs to the vehicle (“So they won’t see what I’m doing,” said the beautiful dog-trainer). Then she came along with the dog which sniffed the tires, and the trunk, then jumped in and sniffed the seats. Finally the passengers were allowed to return. This procedure was also employed for a truck carrying food in UNRWA cartons to a nearby village. The truck crew was ordered to unload the cartons and clear a path inside the truck and then the dog and trainer did their sniffing. Afterwards the truck crew reloaded the cartons and drove off, and another car took the truck’s place.In the morning the line was not yet long, but new detainees kept arriving in the little “pen” [ detainees are, typically, men aged between 16 and 30 who do not have passage permits. Their ID details are relayed by the checkpoint soldiers to the General Security Services (GSS – aka the Shabak or the Shin Bet) which cross-checks them against a central list of security suspects and then relays the results back to the checkpoint; this process is cumbersome and can be further lengthened if the soldiers wait to accumulate a batch of ID cards before relaying them to the GSS, or if they behave in a similarly tardy manner at the end of the process, when the results come back, before they release the detainees. Meanwhile the detained Palestinians are virtually held prisoner at the checkpoints since the soldiers hold their IDs until GSS clearance comes through] . The checkpoint commander told us we were only disturbing him at his work. (It’s chilling to think how the words “work” and “doing my job” have metamorphosed in the past few years.)Do the revolving gates keep the line away from the soldiers and preclude the need to shout over and over again at the pushing crowd? No. The soldiers were still very busy “organizing” the line which was crushed behind the gates, with threats and “educational” lectures.The woman soldier in charge of the women’s line had learnt enough Arabic to wave a hand and call out: “Wahad banat” and then “Wahad banat, don’t you get it?” And, in answer to a request, she responded: “My ass!” Luckily, I believe that ignorance of the Hebrew language spared the Palestinian an encounter with the soldier’s ass.Towards noon, an old man arrived in a wheelchair accompanied by his wife, daughter and grandson who was pushing the chair. They were returning to Nablus from Rafidiya hospital and heading for home in Aqraba. On the other side of Huwwara South checkpoint, the grandson’s car was waiting. They were detained, checked and the grandson was sent to the detainees’ area. The woman remained standing beside her father. We contacted the army’s “humanitarian” hotline and the “Moked”, i.e. the Centre for the Defence of the Individual, and they were released quite soon; but I think that it was the checkpoint commander himself who dealt with the problem with the necessary urgency. The hellish atmosphere of shoving, shouts, crowding inside the gates and constant lectures by the soldiers were still going on when we left._
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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