Huwwara, Sun 30.12.07, Afternoon
Translation: Tal H.
15:00 Za'tara/Tapuach Junction Checkpoint – empty of vehicles
In Huwwara's market we hear the grocer's report: recently, late on various nights, a colonist arrives in his pickup truck and throws havoc, smashing car windshields and even windows of local businesses such as the bank and the greengrocer's. People have appealed to the Border Patrol men that frequent the town who said they'd look into it and didn't do a thing. On our way home we spoke again with more people who confirmed the story and told of many more cases of such damages at the hands of the same colonist.
Burin/Yitzhar Junction CP – unmanned.
On our way back this evening – it is manned, keeping nearly 30 cars waiting in line.
15;15 Huwwara Checkpoint
Commander – officer, name unknown to us
DCO representative -A.
X-Ray Truck active
No sniffer dog
A detainee held in the concrete cell, his hands cuffed behind his back. Waiting for GSS interrogation, wanted for interrogation.
The checkpoint compound is festive with new flags and banners of the Golani infantry brigade now manning it.
Three checking posts active, large camera crew present, working for the Israeli Army spokesperson office. Making a film about the DCO. Their luck provided them with some action – the detainee being picked up for interrogation. Palestinians were amazed at the bustle and asked if some Hollywood feature was being filmed on site…
The special side line for women, children and elderly proceeds rapidly. And wonder of wonders, as soon as the film crew leaves, the pace slows down considerably and passage is at snailspace.
Soldiers are busy mainly fighting the bitter cold with loud, unceasing joking, playing around and merrymaking. Songs, shouts and squeals from one end of the compound to the other are mixed with the usual screeches of the Military Policewomen checking ID numbers against various lists.
Pedestrian traffic today is slighter than usual at this time of day.
Vehicles entering Nablus accumulate and some of the time are even inspected, unlike the usual routine.
Two young men tell us they were caught working in Israel and taken for interrogation to the Petah Tiqwa police station. There policemen confiscated a cellular phone of one of the two men, an act later denied. They were both handcuffed, and at their release, the policemen couldn't open the metal cuffs of one of them with the key, and had to cut the chain open. The two were then taken to the Kfar Qassem Checkpoint (Shaarei Shomron) and had to proceed on foot, without any money, and one of them with a steel cuff on each wrist…
The checkpoint emptied nearly completely by 5:30 p.m. We remained until after 6, waiting for our friends to return from Beit Furik Checkpoint, where drivers had been waiting for hours in line, in the bitter cold.
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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