Tarqumiya, magnetic cards - new ruling
The draconian ruling that women attending the beach days must now show a magnetic card almost made our beach days project fall through for this summer, beginning June 5.
The emergency fundraiser we organized quickly to collect funds for financing the cost of these magnetic cards for women who cannot afford them and were already listed – saved the project. Within a few days we raised the necessary amount to finance the cards! About 200 donors hurried to pay for mothers of families. (A card costs 130 NIS, and the Palestinian contractor who arranges them takes another 20-30 NIS).
Rachel and Gili, determined Beach Days initiators and activists, organized groups of southern women who came to the Tarqumiya Checkpoint yesterday and helped produce the cards with these donations. About 100 women came! A woman officer of the DCO helped us finish the job. The hurdle was vanquished.
Today we drove to our friend A. who organized a group from Huwarra, En Abous and ‘Ariq. We gave her the donation money to produce cards for her group. En Abous is a village west of the turnabout in the main street of Huwarra.
We were afraid to return to Huwarra after the violence that has been exerted there and in the Nablus area almost daily, the killing of the two settler-colonists and the pogrom that followed, the injured soldier last week and the endless attacks taking place in Nablus.
Our friend M. assured us that the situation there is monitored by soldiers, and that Huwarra stops are all closed now, we shouldn’t worry…
Indeed, driving along the Huwarra main street was a military nightmare. There were concrete posts every few meters, soldiers unsheltered from the sun, fully armed with pointed guns. Between the temporary (?) posts soldiers walk around, their rifles drawn. The entrance to En Abous is blocked with a metal arm of a temporary checkpoint, manned by soldiers.
Shops were opened today after being closed for about a week since the attack on the soldier. But the poverty, filth and shops appearing deserted, black writing on road signs that are no longer legible – all these were saddening and worrisome.
We went into the falafel shop, people were angry. Said their shops and businesses are being closed all the time, the army is everywhere. They were not eager to speak with us.
Talking with our friend M. to validate what we’d seen, he confirmed that this past year has been the hardest, as the Israeli army is even stricter with the Palestinians now. Every stone thrown is followed by shops being closed and arrests, and this happens a lot. Shop owners have deserted Huwarra, for their livelihood has been impacted. The settler-colonists are free to do as they please: curse, attack, and the army supports them. Soldiers stop vehicles on the main road and flying checkpoints and when drivers resist, traffic police is summoned and they are fined. Donations reaching Huwarra have been privately passed on to families whose homes were burnt in the pogrom, but no money has reached the municipality. Nor from the Palestinian Authority.
On our way back we saw new signs: “Next year in built-up Tel Aviv” (take-off on the traditional yearning-for-Jerusalem litany). Is this a warm-hearted preparation to take over Tel Aviv?
We also took goods to an Azoun second-hand shop, which we had not been allowed to enter in recent months because the owners feared for our safety. The village has often been under closure and the villagers would not like to see Jews’ vehicles driving through. A back-to-back meeting takes place at the Nabi Elias town square.
God willing, we’ll get to the beach…
'Azzun
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Azoun (updated February 2019)
A Palestinian town situated in Area B (under civil Palestinian control and Israeli security control),
on road 5 between Nablus and Qalqiliya, east of Nabi Elias village. The inhabitants are allowed to construct and improve infrastructures. The Separation Fence has confiscated lands belonging to the town's people. In 2018 olive tree groves owned by one of its inhabitants were confiscated for the sake of paving a road to bypass Nabi Elias. Azoun population numbers 13,000, its economic state dire. Its infrastructures are poor, neglect and poverty rampant. In the meantime, the town council has completed paving an internal road for the inhabitants' welfare.
Because of its proximity to the Jewish settler-colony of Karnei Shomron and its outposts, the town suffers the intense presence of the Israeli army, especially at nighttime: soldiers enter homes, arrest suspects, trash the house and sometimes ruin it, as they do in numerous places in the West Bank. At times a checkpoint closes the entrance to the town, so no one can come in or get out.
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'Einabus
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'Einabus
A village in the Nablus district, west of Hawara, numbering about 3,000 people. 85% of the village's land in Area B, 15% in Area C. 114 dunams of its land were expropriated to establish the violent settlement of Yitzhar and its outposts. Due to the proximity and violence of the settlers sitting on the top of the mountain to invade the village lands, the inhabitants of Einabus regularly suffer from harassment by settlers throwing stones, smashing windows, cutting down olive groves, as well as arson of vehicles and fields. All these were intensified in the second decade of the 21st century.
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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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Tarqumiya CP
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The Tarqumiya Checkpoint is one of the largest and busiest checkpoints where people and goods cross into Israel. It is located on the Separation Barrier close to the Green Line, on Road 35 (connecting Beer Sheva and Hebron). It is run by the Israel Defense Ministry’s Crossings Administration with civilian secuirty companies running the day to day operations. The checkpoint is indeed open to vehicles in both directions 24/7, but Palestinians are prevented from crossing in vehicles, except in special cases. MachsomWatch activists visit the checkpoint as it opens at 3:45 am, in order to observe the daily passage of nearly 10,000 Palestinian workers. The workers arrive from throughout the Southern West Bank. Our activists report on the tremendous overcrowding at this checkpoint; they have observed young men climbing and scrambling on the fences and roofs of the ‘access cages’. This is how the work day begins for those who ‘build the land of Israel’. updated November 2019
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