Duma: settlers harm the body, soul and property of the residents

Place:

Duma

'Azzun

Huwwara

Za'tara (Tapuah)

Tags:

Deportation

Settler-colonists injure Palestinians body, soul and property

Swords of Iron War

Observers:

Anat Polak, Fathiya Akfa (report)

Dec-21-2023

Afternoon

We intended to go to Duma, but the head of the local council asked us to arrive after 2 p.m. because he had to be in Nablus and would only be back around 2. So we used the time to see what is going on at Huwara.

1:30 p.m. – Azzun – the gate between Azzun and Nabi Elias was closed. Both entrances to Azzun were closed, we saw no Palestinian vehicles on the road. There were many soldiers around the entrance, and the watchtower was manned.

1:35 p.m. – Funduk - two army posts, soldiers manning them with drawn guns.

Jit Junction – the entrance to Sara village was closed so the road from there to Nablus was devoid of vehicles; four manned army posts at the turnoff to the Yitzhar-Huwara road just before Havat Gil’ad outpost. We saw no Palestinian vehicles.

Huwara – the Checkpoint was closed. The old checkpoint was lit up, army vehicles and soldiers were nearby so we didn’t dare enter the car-park for fear of confronting the soldiers.

Huwara: A dog wandering the empty street

Photo:

Fathiya Akfa

A street that was bustling with life. Usually at such an hour there were terrible traffic jams.

The main road to Huwara was empty, only soldiers were seen there with their drawn guns, army posts on both sides of the road, in addition to where they have situated themselves on the roof of the tall building.

Several shops were open – a grocery store, a shop selling baby info-icon goods, two garages and a small bakery at the corner, who claimed they received a license to open.

Opposite the entrance to Beita we saw an army post and several soldiers inside a pickup truck.

Za’tara Junction was full of soldiers, at the bus stops as well.

Duma: Blockade at the entrance to the village

Photo:

Fathiya Akfa

3 p.m. – Duma village. The entrances are blocked by dirt dykes. People must take the muddy track through the olive groves. Soldiers standing on the road turn them back claiming the Palestinians throw fire bombs (which is a lie, of course).

The head of the local council, Sliman Dawabsha welcomed us and thanked us for asking about them and distributing what we hear about their suffering. He told us how much the colonists harass them (Esh Kodesh colonist outpost) and the soldiers who walk around the village streets the whole time. The colonists did not let Palestinians harvest their olives and even shot and wounded the grove-owner who dared harvest in his own area, and burnt 4 vehicles belonging to his family members. In addition, the colonists have taken over all the village water springs.

Threatening to shoot them, a colonist by the name of Elhanan chased away the entire Bedouin group who live east of the village, not far away. He stole their sheep so they left their homes and moved to live elsewhere in the village, in tents. The colonist has seen to it that they do not come back, and has blocked the entrance to their area.

In the villages of Qusra, Jawarish and Qaryut, too, all entrances are blocked. When someone falls ill and must see a doctor, death awaits as people finally manage to move the patient.

Duma village owns lands that have been confiscated in order to pave a road that would connect the colony of Shilo to Road 60.

We left at about 5 p.m.

Location Description

'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.

Za'tara (Tapuah) Checkpoint

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Za'atara is an internal checkpoint in the heart of the West Bank, at the intersection of Road 60 and Road 505 (Trans-Samaria), east of the Tapuach settlement.
This checkpoint is the "border" marked by the IDF between the north and south of the West Bank, in accordance with the policy of separation between the two parts of the West Bank that has been in place since December 2005.

At the Za'atara checkpoint, there are separate routes for Israelis and Palestinians. In the route for Israelis, there are no inspections and the route for Palestinians inspects. The queue lengthens and shortens suits.

The checkpoint is open 24 hours a day. The checkpoint is partially staffed and the people who pass through it are checked at random.

Sep-28-2023

Shoshi Anbar

Za'atra (Tapuah Intersection). Signs

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Huwwara - the checkpoint and the township

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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 info-icon 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 today is free, but there is still a military presence in the guard tower and vehicle inspections are done from time to time.

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 info-icon 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)

Feb-29-2024

Nina Seba

Huwara checkpoint - the gate is closed

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Duma

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A village in the Nablus governorate, with 3,000 residents. They owned some 18,000 dunams, 500 dunams of which the village itself was built. However, after the settlement of Migdaleim annexed a large part of their land, their area was reduced to only 2,000 dunams.

On July 31, 2015, two houses in the town were torched with petrol bombs. Sa'ad and Riham Dawabsha, and their infant, Ali Sa'ad Dawabsha, were burned to death. Another son was seriously injured. "Revenge" and "King Messiah" were spray painted on the walls of the house. The trial of the arsonist, the settler Amiram Ben Uliel, is still underway (2019), and a plea bargain was signed in May 2018 with the minor who participated in the planning of the arson.

The closure info-icon imposed by the army, the poor roads that they are forced use due to the lack of paving permits from the Civil Administration, along with the lack of public transportation, all these difficulties cut off the village from nearby Nablus and Ramallah.