PM
Huwwara, Za’ataraTuesday afternoon 13 April 2004 Observers: Tami P., Tami G., Mihal B-A., Galit G. (reporting) 14:30 — Za’atara Junction: The checkpoint here was quite active, with many Palestinians coming from the direction of Nablus. Around 10 people were waiting to go through. One of them told us, very angrily, that he had left Nablus at 09:00 AM to travel to Bethlehem.We approached one of the soldiers to ask that he let through a mother with a very young infant, and through they went. In the following 10 minutes all the rest went through. When no more pedestrians were left, we went on to Huwwara.Along the way, we counted 32 cars and trucks waiting to go through.Huwwara:The atmosphere at the checkpoint was charged and hostile. It was terribly hot, there was no more water from about 15:30, when the soldiers kept telling us that more water was due to arrive in about 10 minutes. The soldiers themselves were parched and angry as well. The attitude of the officer, B., and of S., from the DCO [IDF Civil Administration office, that issues permits] was cynical and hostile.The number of people detained grew by the minute. There were around 15 Palestinians held at Huwwara South and another 20 at the checkpoint at the northern end. At around 16:00, 15 were released at the northern end, leaving just four who had been stopped in the last half-hour and one other who had been detained since noon. He remained there until we left at 17:00 . We learned that he was from Rantis near Lydda (Lod) – a five-hour drive for him, because he had first to get to Ramallah and go through three checkpoints on his way. He told us he had been working in Nablus for the past month, on a road construction job. We left him our phone numbers, but he made no further contact with us.The detained Palestinians were released, but only to go in the direction of the addresses listed [as their residence] on their ID cards, with no consideration given to where they actually wanted to go.Two were Nablus residents, one of them a cab driver who had come to get back the keys of his taxi, which had been impounded . In the meanwhile, the cab’s headlights had been broken. This is a Mercedes cab which is fitted with laser keys without which it cannot be moved. A new key has to be ordered from Germany at great expense. The pair went back to Nablus without the keys after being detained at Huwwara for more than two hours.Another detainee, a resident of Abu Ghosh, near Jerusalem, had gone to Nablus to visit a friend. Eventually, after a delay of three hours, his Israeli ID card was returned to him and he was set free. Another was a Palestinian, a resident of Nablus, who was trying to get back home after visiting his wife, an Israeli Arab who lives in Ramallah. At the exit from Nablus:A few men were detained, while their wives and children went through. One of the wives waited for her husband, the other called several times from home. The husband was detained at the checkpoint following a visit to the Nablus hospital to which the parents had taken their child after he developed stomach pains. The father was released after an hour’s wait.>During our shift we were in touch with R. from the IDF “Humanitarian Center” [hotline for express handling of urgent cases, usually medical] who noted down the details of most of the detainees, and certainly those of the man that has detained since noon. At around 16:30 the line was much shorter.16:00A group of 17 people from Sweden arrived at the checkpoint wanting to go into Nablus. They did have a permit, but still, at 17:30, when we left, they had not yet gone through the checkpoint. S. tried to help them. (Meanwhile, they suntanned.)We were not of much help much today – although we did manage to expedite the passage of a pregnant woman, a few women with babies, and a family with a sick child. Tami P. was able to help the owners of an evidently pampered Siamese cat that was being sent to a veterinarian in Israel for the treatment of an eye infection : she took the cat from the owners at the northern checkpoint and gave it to a friend of theirs at the southern checkpoint — and all this because the two men involved were not allowed to move across from one side of the checkpoint to the other! Along with the cat went an envelope with money to pay for a plumbing installation job.
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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