Huwwara
Huwwara, Tuesday, 1.8.2006, AMObservers: Yael P., Rahel A. (reporting)Translation: Hanna K.Tapuach Junction: There are only 8 cars in the queue.Yitzhar Junction: There are about 20 cars.Huwwara: a lively traffic. Many people enter Nablus, but there are also many who leave it. In the morning the queue is acceptable: about 70 people all in all – in two queues. There also is a humanitarian queue where elderly people and women with children pass.The checking is very strict. Each Palestinian is asked to lift his shirt, sometimes the vest too. It is rather difficult for us to understand what on earth one is able to hide underneath a thin summer shirt. Later on the queue becomes longer, and people have to stand in it for almost an hour. The passage restrictions are: men aged 18-25 from Nablus, 16-30 from Jenin and Tul Karem.8:30 -A detainee is brought in. He is from Gazza, and has been living now for about 5 years in Huwwara. His wife is eight months pregnant, and they were traveling with his mother in law for a medical check-up in Nablus. The mother in law, who speaks some English, asks for our help. The pregnant woman becomes tired. A chair is looked for in the area, and nothing is found. We approach the CP commander. He suggests that she sit in the detainees’ shed.But the gate is locked. The commander tries to open it, consults on the two way radio, and in the end opens the gate by kicking it.9:15 -a new instruction arrives: women aged 16-30 too are prevented from passing.9:30 -The detainee from Gazza is released.Annoyed soldiers bring two new detainees: taxi drivers. They created a commotion. All those concerned are already very familiar with the ritual, and it seems that they do not get too excited by it. An annoyed soldier rudely pushes another young man to the detainees’ shed. When the soldier went away, we tried to find out what happened. The young man seems to be nervous and on the verge of an outburst. He explains to us that he does not feel well and that he has “a mess” in his body, shows us a letter from a doctor and pills. The soldiers made him nervous. They asked again and again that he lift his shirt. So now he is being punished.A family from Nablus on its way to a funeral at Huwwara. The head of the family speaks Hebrew well. He explains to us that his 22 year old son is prevented from passing. We try to convince the CP commander A., to act beyond the letter of the law. He has terrible qualms. The person who helps him decide in the negative is the DCO. The DCO behaves like a slave who became king, does not approach us at all and is not prepared to help anybody. In the end the family despairs and proceeds to the funeral without the son.10:30 -The queues become longer. The restriction imposed on the passage of women influences the progress of the queue. Groups of women who came out together stand and wait for a member of the family who was detained. The atmosphere becomes heavy and oppressive. The CP commander works hard but the checking becomes longer and with it the arguments and clarifications.10:45 -One of the detained taxi drivers is released. It does not seems that the two others will be released soon. They are impatient, leave the shed from time to time and confront the soldiers.11:00 -Another detainee. He claims that he is a student from Gazza, he studies already for five years in Nablus. Civil Engineering. He wishes to visit his family in Gazza, and then he wants to emigrate into another country. It is hard to believe that he stands any chance to reach Gazza. The queues at the CP become longer and longer.11:15 -The Yitzhar Junction: about 25 cars.
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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