A violent demonstration in Huwwara.

13:30  Habla In the beginning there was pressure, there were many people, especially those leaving, but then it went smoothly.

13:40  Izbat Tabib  We went to the protest tent – identification with the prisoners who were hunger striking. To our regret it was early, so there were no people there.

14:00  Azzun  Near the entrance gate there was a tender and some soldiers around it.

14:30  Jit junction The entrance to the Yitzhar road was blocked, there were many soldiers, they sent everybody, who wanted to drive on this road and to reach Huwwara, back. Of course they didn’t let us drive as well, claiming that there were commotions at Huwwara, and it was forbidden to enter it.

But we continued straight through the village of Sara to Nablus (although this is a very long way). We drove to the Beit Furiq CP which was full of soldiers. They checked every vehicle which passed. There was a very long queue of vehicles which extended up to the entrance to the village.

16:20  Huwwara   The CP was full of soldiers and was closed to vehicles. There was a queue of hundreds of vehicles in both directions.

We continued to Huwwara. On the way, at the entrance to Burin, there were soldiers who checked everybody who entered or who exited. At the Yitzhar Huwwara square there were many soldiers and they made the persons who wanted to enter Huwwara return. They did not made us return as we told them that we were driving home by way of the Tapuah intersection.

Inside Huwwara, at each intersection and square, there were dozens of soldiers and policemen on the main road. At the Huwwara-Inabus intersection, at the big square, there were persons from the TV, channel one. They filmed and interviewed the soldiers. They called a Palestinian who stood there and interviewed him and when they finished three soldiers went up to him and scolded him (he probably said thing which contradicted theirs). We went to the soldiers and asked what had happened. The commander said there had been a demonstration which disrupted the traffic. A settler from Itamar happened to be on the spot and the Palestinians attacked his vehicle, and broke its windows. When he realized that his life was in danger he drew a pistol and shot two persons. One was hit in his head and died immediately, and the second was wounded in his hand. When he finished his story he said – I always enter your site and read what you are writing, so I ask you to write everything I said.

We went to talk with the Palestinian who had been scolded. At that moment, an ambulance which came from the hospital in Nablus, with the body of the Palestinian who had been shot by the settler, passed, surrounded by a procession of cars (perhaps two hundred or more). The cars which were at Huwwara naturally also joined the procession. The soldiers left the place and drove after the procession. They stood at the entrance to the village of Beta, as the Palestinian who had been killed was from Beta. In the meantime three border police jeeps arrived and the soldiers stood in the square with drawn guns.

We tried to enter Beta but the driver didn’t agree. He was afraid that stones would be thrown, and wasn’t prepared to be hit, or his car damaged.  We waited about half an hour at the entrance to Beta but it seemed that there were speeches and the funeral hadn’t ended. In the meantimeth the soldiers closed the exit from Beita and began to take the passengers off and search.

We left at 17:10.