Za’atara Huwwara Beit Furik
Za’atara Huwwara Beit Furik Awarta, Monday 31.7.2006 PMObservers: Macky S. Riva B. (reporting)Natanya translating.13.30 -Behind the entrance to the new checkpoint at the Gate of Shomron we were met but more mounds of sand.13.50 Za’atara. Only one truck. In general little movement including Hawarra.14.00 Checkpiont Burin. Only 5 cars.14.10 – There are many taxis and the market place is lively.It is terribly hot, rowdy and turbulent. Babies crying and people who have at last managed to pass through with tears in their eyes or anger written on their faces. In the enclosure are two handcuffed men who have been there since 13.40 (on the hand of the commander is written 13.40 to 17.40 . He says that they tried to bypass the checkpoint through the fields (the valley of the runaways in the jargon of the army ) and had been caught by soldiers who guard the road. The commander brought them water and allowed them to smoke. We understood from the humanitarian centre that there was no cause for them to interfere an that the men would be freed in 4 hours after being checked. The commander explains the length of the women’s line as the result of an alert about a woman terrorist as the one caught in Tel Aviv last week had passed through Hawarra. We asked that women with children would be given preference but the commander, the commander of the military police and the military corps do not react. As a reaction to the hardships of the checkpoint are added the screaming of the soldiers at the lack of patience shown by those waiting. Women coming out tell of a waiting period of 4 hours and even if they are exaggerating it is still bad enough. When we arrived we saw a bus with passengers. When we left at 4pm they were still waiting.Before we drove to Beit Furik we asked G. we asked him what the possibility was of the bus passing though and he said something like “not even in another hour” and in hindsight there was truth in his words.Beit Furik. 15.15 On our way we saw new mounds of sand made to prevent people slipping through. When we arrived at the checkpoint the shift was just changing. The commander, I. who is prepared to listen and who does his duty with a good heart and acts very sensibly solved problems left over from the previous shift.1. The problem was a freed prisoner who had his release document but not his id which had been lost by the Palestinian authorities as the building had been destroyed . He promised that he would see to the matter and that he would return within an hour. 2. A truck with food for Beit Furik had been ordered by the previous commander to go through Awarta.15.55 Awarta There is a line of cars but no delays.16.00 Back to Hawarra. The passengers of the bus at last alighted from the bus and were being checked but all the same the bus did not leave even when we drove off. One detainee ‘to be educated” because he had refused to pick up a piece of paper from the ground which he had not thrown down. G. said he would be freed in a few minutes. The handcuffed detainees were still in the enclosure.16.10 Checkpiont Burin 22 cars waiting. At Za’atra no line.
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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