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BEIT FURIK & HUWWARA, Wednesday 18 May 2004 PM Observers: Tami G., Ephrat Y., Hagit A. (reporting) colour = red>It was very quiet at both checkpoints with only a few people in line and almost no vehicles — a strange, disturbing quiet (not a bird cheeped…). During our watch, we realized that it was just then that the funerals of those killed the day before at Rafah were taking place — a day of mourning, businesses were closed and there was very little movement.At Beit Furik all was quiet. There were only a few people there. We noticed building work and signs that the checkpoint was being enlarged. There were no detainees. A father and a frightened child were not allowed through. Following our intervention, the soldiers checked their lists and it turned out that the two had gone through that morning and so they let them back again. In cases like this it’s worth insisting that the soldiers check their lists.Huwwara South There were about 25 detainees in the “pit” [ a sunken area of ground parallel with the road and the lines of those going through the checkpoint where detainees wait until their documents are returned after checking]. They said that they had been waiting for four hours. A few minutes after our arrival, the soldiers started to return documents, and within 10 minutes only two were left: their documents were found to have been forged.When we returned here after seeing what was going on on the northern side, there were two additional detainees. One of them was very worked up and told us, in great detail, about his upset stomach. The soldiers were embarrassed and helpless. There are lavatories, but only on the northern side. After our intervention, they released them. Lavatories and drinking water remain serious problems. Huwwara North The soldiers had a new helper. At 09:00 they had confiscated a taxi driver’s keys and told him that they would return them at 17:00, on condition that he help them organize the line and translate for them. He rushed around and organized the few people there in line and sent them one by one to the “captain”. So he was , at one and the same time, an usher, a representative of the District Coordinating Office (DCO) [ the section of the army that looks after civilian matters and often has a representative at the checkpoints to alleviate the lot of the Palestinians], a translator, an assistant soldier and an unwilling collaborator…The checkpoint commander confirmed this {when we asked] and ignored our protest. We waited until 17:00 and made sure that the man’s keys were returned.Two Jerusalem residents with blue identity cards were detained. They had gone through the checkpoint towards Nablus in the morning without any problem, but now they were not being allowed back. We gave them cards with the phone number of the Centre for the Defence of the Individual which had promised to look after them.
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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