Huwwara
Huwwara 25 June 2006 Watchers: Dvorka A., and Ditza Y. (reporting)Za’atra7:50 a.m. There are twelve vehicles, on their way from the west, waiting. A bus driver tells us that he has been waiting for half an hour.8:00 a.m.At the northern roadblock there are two checking lanes and one humanitarian queue. A Palestinian driver tells us that he got to the queue an hour ago.One of the soldiers is prepared to talk to us and tries to prove to us that we are not good Jews. The conversation is cut short when the roadblock commander asks us to stand at the side.There are 70 vehicles in the queue.8:25 a.m.There are about 30 people at the roadblock, two cars in the queue from Nablus. The x-ray machine is at the roadblock. From time to time a humanitarian queue is opened.Gilad, the roadblock commander is a thinking and humane man.The roadblock is quiet and this enables us to check out what is going on, to look on helplessly at the soldier who stands all the time with his weapon trained on the Palestinians.8:40 a.m.A driver with a BMC badge on his windscreen is not permitted to cross because he has no permit. The roadblock commander claims that he comes every day and tries to cross instead of getting a permit from the DCO.A young woman with a child on her way from Nablus crosses outside the turnstile. The commander calls her “mara” (madam) and, returning her to the roadblock, asks a girl soldier to give her a body check. When we ask what awaits her he says that she will be released at the end of the inspection.9:10 a.m.A young man whom we monitored from the moment he arrived at the roadblock, leaves after 25 minutes.There are 20 – 25 people at the turnstiles.Beit Furiq9:20 a.m. There are few pedestrians crossing and one car at the roadblock.A taxi driver whom we approached tells us that car owners do not required a permit to enter Nablus at present. Taxi drivers from Beit Furiq and Beit Dejan only are required to produce permits in order to enter Nablus. He says that the roadblock closes at 7:00 p.m. at present. Anyone coming late has to wait until 8:00 p.m., and is then let through.Awarta9:25 a.m.There is one lorry at the roadblock.Huwwara9:30 a.m.It is quiet and there are few people at the turnstiles.9:40 a.m.We left the roadblock.
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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