Huwwara, Za’tara (Tapuah), Fri 14.12.07, Morning
Translation: Suzanne O.
Za'tara
8:45 a.m.
There are two cars in the queue.
At Yitzhar there are no barriers in either direction.
Beit Furik 9:00 a.m.
From the road we can see a large number (greater than usual on Fridays) of cars queuing to be checked at the exit from the village. At the roadblock we find a large group of army personnel, many of them officers. They are standing in the car lane and the roadblock commander, the infamous polite one, is giving them a lecture. This does not stop him from sending us away, with a wave of his hand, behind the ‘white line'. It seems that the visiting group is halting the crossing of the cars. The illustrious soldiers/officers are in the lane and the cars are not allowed to interfere with the event. Why can't they stand a few metres away and let the cars through? "What's the problem?" " Let them wait a bit, nothing will happen". These are the kind of answers we get. It's true, nothing happened. The Palestinians in the cars wait quietly, they don't hoot, they don't complain. God's children stand in their lordly fashion (photo attached) and leave when they are ready to leave. It all takes place in peace and quiet, everything is taken for granted and natural. After about a quarter of an hour (we don't know when the visit started), the visitors go on their way and cars start to cross again. The laws are for another world, a world in which with unbearable ease, seemingly without using force, only people are held up, because really: "So what?"
Huwwara 9:00 a.m.
There are very few people. A taxi with an Israeli number plate stands near the roundabout, its bonnet is up, and a friendly dog climbs over the seats and sniffs around. The car owners are residents of Jerusalem. They have just bought the car and want to take it to Nablus. But – they don't have the necessary permits and the DCO is closed on Fridays and Saturdays. They are told to go back. OK, they understand, these are the rules, they will go back, on Sunday they will sort out the documents, but why have their ID cards been taken away and why has the dog been brought to climb over the seats? The ID cards are returned, the dog goes to sniff around somewhere else and the car is released from the grip of the roadblock.
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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Za'tara (Tapuah)
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Za'tara (Tapuah) Za'tara is an internal checkpoint in the heart of the West Bank, at the intersection of Road 60 and Road 505 (Trans-Samaria), east of the Tapuah settlement. This checkpoint is the "border" marked by the IDF between the north and south of the West Bank, in accordance with the policy of separation between the two parts of the West Bank that has been in place since December 2005. At the Za'tara checkpoint, there are separate routes for Israelis and Palestinians. In the route for Israelis, there are no inspections and the route for Palestinians inspects. The queue lengthens and shortens suits. The checkpoint is open 24 hours a day. The checkpoint is partially staffed and the people who pass through it are checked at random.
Shoshi AnbarSep-27-2023Za'atra (Tapuah Intersection). Signs
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