soldiers showed no flexibility at all, and, stony-faced, they turned back anyone whose address did not fit..
There were unannounced roadblocks on the way to Huwwara near Tel Zion and near Az- Zawiya with many cars waiting to pass south, and all passengers being checked.
Huwwara Extra closure measures were in force so that only Nablus residents were allowed in and only residents of villages south of Nablus were allowed out. Otherwise only “urgent medical cases” were allowed to go through the checkpoint, and, as usual, it was strong, healthy, young soldiers who were the ones authorized to determine who was a sufficiently urgent case. The soldiers, for their part, were proud of their talent to detect lies.
Nobody knew why the extra closure measures had been imposed and we heard the usual statements about security alerts. Among those turned back at the checkpoint were old people, one of them, an old woman, was in tears; people with work permits, including medical staff; a desperate man who needed to collect his wife and new-born child from Nablus; a man with a broken denture who was trying to get to a dental technician to have it fixed; parents with sick children; people in urgent need of their medication which they had to pick up; others who had medical and dental appointments, etc., etc.
At the southern checkpoint we noticed that while the soldiers yelled at people quite a bit, they also listened and showed a certain degree of flexibility., and, one has to say it, that almost certainly had something to do with our presence there.
At the northern checkpoint, the soldiers showed no flexibility at all, and, stony-faced, they turned back anyone whose address did not fit into the categories permitted to move through the checkpoint. The representative of the District Coordinating Office (DCO) [the army section that deals with civilian matters], lieutenant I. showed up briefly at the southern end and allowed through quite a few medical cases, but then he disappeared and was replaced later by captain E. who refused to speak to us, claiming that one Machsomwatch observer had called him nasty names.
We explained that we disapproved strongly of name-calling and then he became a bit more open. With his help and some extra negotiations, we were able to push through a young man and his mentally sick sister who were on their way to Nablus’ Rafidiya hospital for her monthly injection. They had elected to go to Nablus, rather than Bethlehem, where she is usually treated, because of the closure at Wadi Nar.
The sister and brother both had special authorizations for movement on closure days. Since it was May Day and a university holiday, there were no students at the checkpoint. M.B. of the Physicians for Human Rights organization did answer our calls but failed to call us back.
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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