Nablus area checkpoints,road-blocks
Nablus Area Checkpoints , Saturday 18 December 2004 AMObservers: a large group visited all the Nablus checkpoints: Nurit L., Tammy G., Amalia V., Rachel A., Vicky B., Naomi R., Varda G., Hava H., Solli P., Vivi Ts. (reporting) colour = red> SummaryThere was a more relaxed atmosphere at all the checkpoints, particularly at Huwwara, by contrast with the checkpoints on Road 60, south of Nablus. Huwwara South There was a better atmosphere here: the checkpoint was manned by military police and paratroopers. The turnstiles were not working and there was lively pedestrian traffic. Most of the time weapons were not aimed at the Palestinians. A soldier was reprimanded for not arriving quickly enough to check a car. Bags and papers were checked only randomly. At the beginning of the watch, young men who were detained were released rapidly, but by 10:00 detainees were waiting more than an hour ( on the coldest day in the past fifty years!). Lowering the age limit has helped the 25-30-year-olds. [Detainees are, typically, men aged from 16 to 30 or 35 who have no passage permits; recently, young women, too, have been detained, and there have been relaxations in the age limits . The detainees’ ID details are phoned through to the General Security Services (GSS, also known as the Shabak or the Shin Bet, the Hebrew acronym for the GSS) for checking against a central list of security suspects and the answers are then relayed back to the checkpoints. This cumbersome process can take considerable time, and that can be prolonged even more if the soldiers wait to accumulate a batch of ID cards before passing them on to the GSS , or if they behave in a similarly tardy manner at the end of the process, waiting until they have a batch of GSS clearances before they release individual detainees. Meanwhile, the detainees are virtually prisoners at the checkpoint where the soldiers retain the ID cards until the entire process is completed]. Huwwara North There were no lines, few pedestrians and few vehicles. Beit FurikThe checkpoint was manned by reservists. Residents of Salem and Azmut were able to reach Nablus without going through the checkpoint, but they had to pass through Beit Furik in order to cross the road to the neighbouring villages beyond Road 60 at the Huwwara-Eilon Moreh section which is totally prohibited to Palestinians. Passage was rapid and there were no lines. SarraHere we saw two soldiers checking 10 passengers who’d been taken off a pickup truck. Their documents would certainly be checked again before they entered Nablus. The soldiers said about 250 people went through this checkpoint every day: the only reason for its existence is to prevent villagers from Sarra, Til and Burin from using Roads 60 and 55 on their way to Beit Iba, since these routes pass close by the Israeli settlement of Kedumim. A truck was pumping water to the nearby villages. Passage procedures were similar to those at the other Nablus checkpoints. Beit IbaThe new age restrictions, 14-25 for men – applied here as well. Traffic moved well and there were no lines. There was one detainee, and one confiscated taxi. We left quickly because of the intense cold. Unannounced Road-Blocks At Tapuah junction , 27 vehicles stood waiting for a slow check; further south, near Al-Luban Ash-Sharqiya, there was a line of 40 vehicles, including packed buses, at a road-block there . Checking was very slow but as soon as we arrived the soldiers announced that the road-block would be removed in another two minutes. It had been set up at 09:00 and people had been waiting an hour-and-a-half. Immediately afterwards, a new unannounced road-block went up further south at Halamish junction, before the turnoff to Ramallah. A few cars were checked randomly, but traffic was slow because of all the barriers which hampered driving. We met a representative of the Palestinian press agency who told us that it had taken him three hours to travel from Tulkarm through three checkpoints.
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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