Tag: Huwwara

Palestinians banned from land as Route 60 expands

17th november 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Huwwara team | Burin, occupied Palestine

ķ The Israeli forces came to the family’s field

On monday morning, Mahmoud Yasser Eid, a 22 year-old palestinian from the village of Burin, was stopped by the Israeli forces as he went to pick olives with his mother, near the Huwwara checkpoint. The land, that the family has been harvesting for three years along with another family, is located between route 60 from Ramallah to Nablus, and the road leading to the Bracha illegal settlement. The family did not get a permit to harvest this year : “they don’t want us to work near this road because of the situation. They say it’s for safety”, said Mohammed, Mahmoud’s older brother. The family tried to access their land anyway, as olives are an important income to the family of nine children. “People here need the olives”, added Mohammed.

The Israeli forces came at around 8 am, as the mother and son were having breakfast in the field. They controlled and searched Mahmoud and made them both sit there for a few hours while they searched all their belongings. Mahmoud’s mother, Raeda, cried until the soldiers accepted not to arrest her son. They warned him that they would come to arrest him at his house if he tried to access the field again. “We didn’t sleep that night !” said Mahmoud.

During the last three years, the Yasser family was allowed to harvest on this field, but this year they were not granted permission to do so. A neighbour who was picking olives in his field nearby saw the scene and said “they [the israeli army] don’t want anyone to go to this land anymore”. The family thinks that they won’t be allowed to harvest the olives on their land in the next few years, as it is strategically located a few meters away from the main road, route 60, between Ramallah and Nablus, and near the Huwwara checkpoint.

The project of expanding part of route 60 to a wider road, with a financiel help from the US Aid, could explain the difficulties faced by Mahmoud’s family to access their land. The construction, that has already started, will make the road from Yizhar junction (west of Huwwara) to the palestinian village of Beita (east of Huwwara), through the town of Huwwara, a 21-meters wide road. This would lead to an even more limited access to the surroundings of the road for palestinian locals. “Some land might be taken by Israel”, carefully said Raed, from the Burin village council. The situation is already complicated at the moment for the villages close to route 60, and especially for Huwwara, a rare example of palestinian village crossed by a road used by both israeli settlers and Palestinians, that is under permanent surveillance from the Israeli forces.

The “bypass-roads system”, was thought to enable “access to settlements and travel between settlements without having to pass through Palestinian villages”, according to a Bet’selem research from 2004. It has become a way to reinforce apartheid within the West Bank. According to the study from the Israeli organization, many of these roads had as a goal to refrain palestinian villages from expanding. And it had indeed refrained them.

Military places curfew on Huwwara village, arrests two young men, and raids Palestinian homes

5th November 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Huwwara, Occupied Palestine

On Friday the 31^st of October, approximately 300 Israeli soldiers invaded the village of Huwwara, near Nablus. They fired tear gas canisters and stun grenades, seemingly in attempt to clear the streets of people, and declared the village to be a closed military zone. They closed down the mosques, forced the shop owners to close their shops and placed a curfew on the village.

Mutda Tofeq Odeh and Fadi Gasher Dmede, students from the village, were arrested and held for two days. Residents state that the Israeli forces raided several homes in the village and caused damage to various Palestinian homes and properties. The curfew was finally removed on Monday afternoon.

According to Ma’an news, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a settler bus near the village, with no injuries reported, it is not known if that incident preceded this period of collective punishment.

Two days after the curfew ended, ISM activists visited the village and witnessed a large military presence, who were regularly stopping and searching Palestinian cars.

Roughly 3000 people live in Huwwara village. There are five illegal settlements in the area around, and inhabitants often suffer from settler violence, mostly caused by settlers from the illegal settlement of Yzhar, located just above the village.

Recently settlers from Yzhar set fire to an olive field, belonging to a farmer from Huwwara.

A Palestinian resident of Huwwara stated to ISM that the situation in Huwwara is tense, and inhabitants are frightened that the situation will deteriorate again this weekend.

Zionist settlers burn Palestinian olive grove

22nd October 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Huwwara, Occupied Palestine

This morning at approximately 09:30, settlers from the illegal settlement of Yizhar set fire to a Palestinian olive field above Huwwara village, just outside of Nablus.

The settlers set the land on fire from the top of the hill. People from the village started fighting the fire, but suddenly the wind turned and the flames started moving towards the illegal settlement on the top of the hill. At this point the settlers started fighting their own fire, to prevent damage to their illegal buildings.

The owner of the land, Nasser Jihad Mufdi Houwwari, spoke to ISM about his previous experiences with settlers, in 2002 settlers from Yizhar shot Nasser in the shoulder with two bullets. Nasser continued to state that they [the settlers] threaten him and damage his properties every year, however this is the first time they burnt such a large area of his land.

Two Palestinian teenagers were murdered by an Israeli settler and an Israeli soldier in separate incidents in Huwwara

27th July 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Huwwwara, Occupied Palestine

On Friday, July 25, an Israeli settler murdered a Palestinian teenager in the village of Huwwara, which lies approximately 10 km south of Nablus in the northern half of the West Bank. Two hours later, an Israeli sniper killed another Palestinian teenager in the same village.

After Friday prayers at the mosque in Huwwara, villagers began marching in solidarity with the victims of the Gaza massacre. The protest included many children, some of whom were carrying signs in support of their Gazan brothers and sisters. Two Israeli military jeeps were along the route, and some of the soldiers were taking pictures of the peaceful protest. As the procession wound its way back to the mosque, a settler suddenly raced alongside and slammed on the brakes.

“He was about a meter away from the kids and just started firing out the window of his car,” stated a witness. “It was clear he was trying to kill people.” The settler managed to shoot four people before fleeing the scene. 19-year-old Khalid Owda died from a gunshot wound to his abdomen, while Tarik Dmadi was shot in the chest and remains in critical condition. Hassan Dmadi was shot in the hip, while Jihad Owda was shot in the hand and has been released from the hospital.

“Had he had more ammunition, he would have kept on shooting and killed more people,” said a witness. “Killing Palestinians is no big deal for the settlers, because there is no punishment. And what about the soldiers? They were just standing there, doing nothing.”

Tragedy struck the town of Huwwara a second time two hours later, when an Israeli sniper gunned down 18-year-old Tayeb Shohaada, who, like Khalid Owda, was a student at an-Najah University in Nablus. Israeli forces were shooting tear gas at Tayeb and roughly ten other young men, who were throwing stones in their direction from a distance of approximately 100 meters. According to Red Crescent medic, Ahmed Owda, a female Israeli sniper shot Tayeb in the face. Her sergeant then congratulated her and clapped her on the shoulder. Ahmed subsequently attempted to reach Tayeb but was unable to do so because of Israeli fire. Tayeb was eventually taken to Rafidia hospital in Nablus, where he was declared clinically dead.

The attending surgeon revealed that the damage to Tayeb’s brain was consistent with that caused by expanding bullets. Expanding bullets are banned according to the 1899 Hague Convention, but Israel has frequently been accused of employing them against Palestinians.

Memorial ceremony for both Khalid and Tayeb (photo by ISM).

Palestinian murdered by Israeli forces in Huwarra

4th June 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus team | Huwwara, Occupied Palestine

In the late hours of Monday evening, Israeli forces executed 30-year-old, father of two, Alaa’ Mohammed ‘Awadh, at Za’tara checkpoint, in southern Nablus.

The Israeli army claimed that a Palestinian gunman was shot dead after he injured an Israeli police officer in the leg. The villagers of Huwwara stated their amazement at the version released by the border police; Alaa’ was the owner of a phone shop in Huwarra and not politically affiliated.

The taxi driver stated that Alaa was standing next to the taxi, unarmed, when Israeli soldiers opened fire. A relative of the victim said that Alaa’ arrived at the checkpoint to collect material for his shop.

According to multiple sources, the Israeli military prohibited Red Crescent paramedics from reaching Alaa’. The Israeli army seized his body for “security reasons”, loaded him on into a military vehicle for ‘investigation’.

Yesterday, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) sent a call for a neutral and impartial investigation into the death of Alaa’.

At dawn, Israeli soldiers stormed the village of Huwwara, ransacking the victim’s home, those of his relatives, and his shop, interrogating his parents, his brother and the taxi driver. After the arrival of the military, youth of Huwwara village tried to drive out Israeli forces by throwing stones while Israeli soldiers fired their weapons. One youth was arrested, though his identity is currently unknown. The shops around the village have closed their doors in protest.

At approximately 19:30 yesterday evening, the body was finally handed back to the family, after a short time, the Alaa’s body was transferred to Rafidiah hospital in Nablus.

According to one of the doctors who conducted the autopsy, the majority of Alaa’s wounds were to his chest, abdomen, and both thighs. Alaa’s body held approximately 14 bullet wounds, including a serious wound to the heart and both lungs. His left arm had multiple fractures and a 10×7 cm wound in his left leg. Two fingers were missing on his right hand, and two toes missing from his right foot. Their was also a large wound on the back of his neck.