Beita. The army destroyed a large warehouse with its contents without a demolition order

Place:

Beta

Beit Furik

Huwwara

Tags:

House Demolition

retrieve

Observers:

Anat Polak (photos), Fathiya A. (report)

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Sep-21-2023

Afternoon

3 p.m. Sura Checkpoint (through Sura village, between Jit Junction and Nablus)

Huwarra - Nablus. Traffic jam on the road

Photo:

Anat Polak

Sara Checkpoint - in front of the Jit Junction

Photo:

Anat Polak

The Sura-Nablus Checkpoint was manned by numerous soldiers, and an armored car stood in the middle of the junction. Meticulous inspections took place on both sides of the checkpoint, which caused huge traffic jams. The lines of cars nearly reached Nablus. Road Yitzhar-Jit, too, was filled too, as well as the Yitzhar-Huwara junction. At the right side of the turnoff to Huwara stood a Border Police jeep with several policemen next to it.

Huwara

On the main street we saw several soldiers. The posts situated along the road were manned with 4 armed soldiers in every post, on the rooftops of two high buildings, soldiers with their rifles at ready.

A barrier at the entrance to Beita

Photo:

Anat Polak

3:30 p.m. Beita

At the entrance to the village are 5 Israeli army posts. 2 in every direction and one in the middle. All soldiers are holding their rifles at the ready, and inspecting IDs of everyone coming or going (not us, naturally).

Beita. Ruins of the construction materials warehouse east of the Huwara bypass road

Photo:

Anat Polak

We drove to see a building carved in a hill which the Israeli army demolished, east of the road bypassing Huwara. When we got there, many people had gathered to help remove the rubble. There were tractors, bulldozers, bobcat and a truck. We spoke with the owner of the demolished building. He said he received neither a demolition order or a warning. Soldiers came at 5 in the morning with demolition tools and did their destruction before the owner arrived to remove the goods. It had been a large warehouse of construction materials. We saw all of it that had not been rescued, under the rubble. Damages amount to about 5 million NIS.

5 houses overlooking the road from the hill have received demolition orders. Two of them are 3-storey buildings that have existed even before the Huwara bypass road was planned.

Huwara Checkpoint

Photo:

Anat Polak

4:50 Huwara Checkpoint

This checkpoint is manned in both direction, vehicles are inspected and passengers are ordered off. The traffic jam from the checkpoint reaches the end of Huwara’s main street headed towards Nablus.

5:10 p.m. Beit Furik –

The checkpoint is manned, no inspections.

Location Description

Beta

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Beta is a town of 12,000 people, high unemployment rate. Many work in Israel, others in agriculture. Neat ornamental system. Unemployment is high. Young people, even the educated, are forced to look for work in Israel. Medical services are available once a week.
Settlers from Yitzhar and Itamar harass residents frequently and prevent them from cultivating their fields: Permits are required from the DCO to go to work.

Checkpoint Beit Furik

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One of the three internal checkpoints that closed on the city of Nablus - Beit Furik to the east, Hawara to the south, Beit Iba to the west.
The checkpoint is located at the junction of Roads 557 (an apartheid road that was forbidden for Palestinians), leading to the Itamar and Alon Morea settlements and Road 5487. The checkpoint was established in 2001 for pedestrians and vehicles; The opening hours were short and the transition was slow and very problematic.

Allegedly, the checkpoint is intended to monitor the movement to and from Nablus of the residents of Beit Furik and Beit Dajan, being the only opening outside their villages.
Since May 2009 the checkpoint is open 24 hours a day, the military presence is limited, vehicles can pass through it without inspections, except for random inspections. (Updated April 2010)

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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