Huwara or Howwarah (, ) is a

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

town located in the

Nablus Governorate The Nablus Governorate () is an administrative district of Palestine located in the Central Highlands of the West Bank, 53 km north of Jerusalem. It covers the area around the city of Nablus which serves as the ''muhfaza'' (seat) of the go ...

of the

State of Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

. Located in the northern Israeli-occupied

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

, Huwara is on the main road connecting Nablus southwards to Ramallah and Jerusalem, approximately from

Jacob's Well Jacob's Well, also known as Jacob's Fountain or the Well of Shechem, Sychar, is a List of Christian holy sites in the Holy Land, Christian holy site located in Balata village, a suburb of the State of Palestine, Palestinian city of Nablus in t ...

.Rix, 1907, p
25
/ref> According to the

Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS; ) is the official statistical institution of Palestine. Its main task is to provide credible statistical figures at the national and international levels. It is a state institution that provid ...

, the town had a population of 6,659 in 2017. Huwara is a flashpoint town in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Huwara is on the

main road A "main road" may refer to: * A major road in a town or village, or in a country area. * A highway * A trunk road, especially in British English Main Road may refer to: * Main Road, Hobart, Australia * Main Road, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh * Main ...

to nearby

Israeli settlements Israeli settlements, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Jewish identity or ethnicity, and hav ...

, leading to frequent clashes between Israeli soldiers and settlers and local Palestinians. Most notably, two Israeli civilian-settlers passing the town were shot by a Palestinian gunman in a shooting attack. In response to the shooting attack, the town was rampaged by hundreds of Israeli settlers, who torched Palestinian businesses and houses, leaving one dead and one hundred Palestinians injured. Israel constructed a bypass road around Huwara to avoid having the Israeli settlers pass through the Palestinian town.

Location

Huwara is located south of

Nablus Nablus ( ; , ) is a State of Palestine, Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 156,906. Located between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a ...

. It is bordered by

Awarta Awarta () is a Palestinian town located southeast of Nablus, in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 7,054 inhabitants in 2017. Awarta's built-up area consists of and it ...

Odala Odala () is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located south of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 1,566 inhabitants in 2017. Location Odala is ...

and Beita to the east, Za'tara and

Yasuf Yasuf () is a Palestinian village in the Salfit Governorate of the State of Palestine, in the northern West Bank, northeast of Salfit, southwest of Nablus and adjacent to the Israeli settlement of Kfar Tapuach. According to the Palestinian Centra ...

to the south,

Jamma'in Jamma'in () is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate of the State of Palestine, in the northern West Bank, located southwest of Nablus, northwest of Salfit and north of Ramallah. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics ...

and

Einabus Einabus () is a Palestinian village in the northern West Bank, located 12 kilometers (7 miles) south of Nablus and a part of the Nablus Governorate. Nearby towns include Huwara and Beita to the east and Jammain to the south. Location ‘Einabus ...

to the west, and

Asira al-Qibliya ’Asira al-Qibliya () is a Palestinian village in the Nablus Governorate in the eastern West Bank, located southwest of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the village had a population of 2,935 inhabitants i ...

and Burin to the north.

History

Antiquity

Huwara is an ancient site, and

cistern A cistern (; , ; ) is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. To prevent leakage, the interior of the cistern is often lined with hydraulic plaster. Cisterns are disti ...

s and

rock-cut tombs A rock-cut tomb is a burial chamber that is cut into an existing, naturally occurring rock formation, so a type of rock-cut architecture. They are usually cut into a cliff or sloping rock face, but may go downward in fairly flat ground. It was a ...

have been found, together with remains of

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

s. It has been suggested that Huwara should be identified with Horon, hometown of

Sanballat the Horonite Sanballat the Horonite ( ''Sanḇallaṭ'') – or Sanballat I – was a Samaritan leader, official of the Achaemenid Empire, and contemporary of the Israelite leader Nehemiah who lived in the mid-to-late 5th century BC. He and his family are menti ...

. Huwara is identified with the

Samaritan Samaritans (; ; ; ), are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Hebrews and Israelites of the ancient Near East. They are indigenous to Samaria, a historical region of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah that ...

village of Hivria ().

Crusader period

Diya al-Din (1173−1245) noted that in the 12th and 13th centuries Huwara was inhabited by

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

Finkelstein Finkelstein ( or , ) is a German language, German and Yiddish language, Yiddish surname originating from Old High German ''funko'' (spark) and ''stein'' (stone). ''Fünkelstein'' meant pyrite (George J. Adler, ''A Dictionary of the German and Engl ...

did not find any

potsherds This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains. A B C D E F ...

predating the Ottoman era.

Ottoman period (1516–1917)

The village was incorporated into the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

in 1517 with all of Palestine, and in 1596 it appeared in the tax registers as being in the ''

Nahiya A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level divisi ...

'' of Jabal Qubal, part of

Nablus Sanjak The Nablus Sanjak (; ) was an administrative area that existed throughout Ottoman Empire, Ottoman rule in the Ottoman Syria, Levant (1517–1917). It was administratively part of the Damascus Eyalet until 1864 when it became part of Syria Vilayet ...

. It had a population of 87 households, all Muslim. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 33.3% on various products, such as wheat, barley, summer crops, olives, goats and/or beehives, and a press for olives or grapes, in addition to "occasional revenues"; a total of 14,000

akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (anglicized as ''akche'', ''akcheh'' or ''aqcha''; ; , , in Europe known as '' asper'') was a silver coin mainly known for being the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. It was also used in other states includi ...

.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 132 In 1838,

Robinson Robinson may refer to: People and names * Robinson (name) Fictional characters * Robinson Crusoe, the main character, and title of a novel by Daniel Defoe, published in 1719 Geography * Robinson projection, a map projection used since the 19 ...

described Huwara as a "large and old village". It was also noted as a Muslim village, in ''Jurat Merda'', south of

.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p
127
/ref> In the 1850s the Ottoman rulers withdrew their soldiers from the district (to be used in the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

), and hence open hostility could ensue between different Palestinian factions.Schölch, 1993, pp. 211-227 In 1853, Huwara was engaged in a battle with the neighboring villages of Quza and Beita which left ten men and seven women dead.

Victor Guérin Victor Guérin (; 15 September 1821 – 21 September 1890) was a French people, French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included ...

visited the village in 1870. He found the village, (which he called ''Haouarah''), to have about 800 inhabitants, and that it was divided into two districts, each administered by a sheikh. A oualy was dedicated to Abou en-Nebyh Sahin. In 1882, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' described Huwarah as a village "of stone and

mud Mud (, or Middle Dutch) is loam, silt or clay mixed with water. Mud is usually formed after rainfall or near water sources. Ancient mud deposits hardened over geological time to form sedimentary rock such as shale or mudstone (generally cal ...

at the foot of Gerizim, just over the main road. It has an appearance of antiquity, and covers a considerable extent of ground".

British Mandate period

In the

1922 census of Palestine The 1922 census of Palestine was the first census carried out by the authorities of the British Mandate of Palestine, on 23 October 1922. The reported population was 757,182, including the military and persons of foreign nationality. The divis ...

conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Huwara had a population of 921, all

s,Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Nablus, p
25
/ref> increasing slightly in the 1931 census, where Huwara (together with the smaller location Bir Quza) had 240 occupied houses and a population of 955, still all Muslims.Mills, 1932, p
62
/ref> In the 1945 statistics Huwwara had a population of 1,300, all Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
18
with 7,982

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...

s of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 607 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 4,858 used for cereals, while 129 dunams were built-up (urban) land. The first elementary school was established in 1947. Huwara Elementary as well as secondary schools serves infants from neighboring villages up to the present time.

Jordanian period

In the wake of the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...

, and after the

1949 Armistice Agreements The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,Jordanian rule. The first elementary school was converted into secondary school in 1962. The first female elementary school was established in 1957. The Jordanian census of 1961 found 1,966 inhabitants.

Post-1967

Since the 1967

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

, Huwara has been under

Israeli occupation Israel has occupied the Golan Heights of Syria and the Palestinian territories since the Six-Day War of 1967. It has previously occupied the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt and southern Lebanon as well. Prior to 1967, control of the Palestinian terr ...

. After the 1995 accords, 38% of Huwwara land was classified as Area B, the remaining 62% as

Area C Area C (; ) is the fully Israeli-controlled territory in the West Bank, defined as the whole area outside the Palestinian enclaves (Areas A and B). Area C constitutes about 61 percent of the West Bank territory, containing most Israeli settle ...

. According to

Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem The Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ; ) is a Palestinian NGO founded in 1990 with its main office in Bethlehem in the West Bank. ARIJ is actively working on research projects in the fields of management of natural resources, water m ...

, Israel has confiscated 282 dunams of Huwwara land for the

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Israeli Jews, Jewish identity or ethni ...

Yitzhar Yitzhar () is an Israeli settlement located in the West Bank, south of the city of Nablus, just off Route 60, north of the Tapuach Junction. The predominantly Orthodox Jewish community falls under the jurisdiction of Shomron Regional Council. ...

. During the

Second Intifada The Second Intifada (; ), also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, was a major uprising by Palestinians against Israel and its Israeli-occupied territories, occupation from 2000. Starting as a civilian uprising in Jerusalem and October 2000 prot ...

, in October 2000, the

Huwwara Checkpoint The Huwara checkpoint (; ) is a formerly major checkpoint operated by the Israel Defense Forces at one of the four main exits of Nablus. Situated to the south of the city, it was named after the nearby town of Huwara. It was established in Octobe ...

was established north of Huwara, as one of the

Israeli checkpoint An Israeli checkpoint (; ) is a barrier erected by the Israeli Security Forces, primarily today part of the system of West Bank closures in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The checkpoints are, according to Israel, intended to enhance securit ...

s around Nablus controlling traffic between this city and

Ramallah Ramallah ( , ; ) is a Palestinians, Palestinian city in the central West Bank, that serves as the administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusalem, at an average elevation of abov ...

Huwara has been the target of price tag attacks, random acts of violence by Jewish Israeli settlers. According to the

International Middle East Media Center The International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC) is an independent news organization run by Palestinians living in the State of Palestine, working together with international journalists, who report on events in both Israel and the State of Pal ...

(IMEMC), in April 2010 settlers torched three Palestinian vehicles in Huwara, while on 27 February 2011, in a price-tag attack against the evacuation of Havat Gilad, settlers threw

molotov cocktails A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see '') is a hand-thrown incendiary weapon consisting of a frangible container filled with flammable substances and equipped with a fuse (typically a glass bottle filled with flammable l ...

at a house in the village. In March 2012 a

Star of David The Star of David (, , ) is a symbol generally recognized as representing both Jewish identity and Judaism. Its shape is that of a hexagram: the compound of two equilateral triangles. A derivation of the Seal of Solomon was used for decora ...

was sprayed on a village mosque. In March 2013, hours after the Tapuah Junction stabbing, Jewish settlers descended on Huwara in another price-tag attack. They attacked a bus carrying Palestinian schoolgirls with stones, shattering a wind-shield and wounding the driver. In October 2014, during the olive harvest season, a fire razed to the ground huge swathes of Palestinian-owned agricultural land between the village of Huwara, near

and the

settlement in the West Bank, destroying over a hundred

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of Subtropics, subtropical evergreen tree in the Family (biology), family Oleaceae. Originating in Anatolia, Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean ...

trees. Although the cause of the fire has been contested, the mayor of Huwara claimed masked men from nearby

and surrounding settlements set the fire by pouring incendiary fluids on the trees and that the Israel Defense Forces prevented

citizens from reaching the lands in order to extinguish the fire. Later on, the Israeli forces allowed the civil defence from the adjacent Palestinian village of Burin to extinguish the fire, but only after it had expanded to an even larger area . The burning and damaging of olive trees is an ongoing-concern of the United Nations, a pattern the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

call "price tag" attacks. The United Nations has reported that by 2013 "...Israeli settlers damaged or destroyed nearly 11,000 olive trees owned by the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank." The Huwwara Checkpoint was dismantled in 2011 in order to ease traffic between Nablus and

. Its location on the main road, used by both Israelis from four

s in the Nablus area and Palestinians from the Nablus area, is a controlling factor of the life in Huwara. The town has many businesses located on the road, which is controlled by the Israeli army to ensure free passage to Jews and Arabs.

2023

On 26 February 2023, a Palestinian gunman shot and killed two Israeli settlers aged 19 and 20 as they drove through Huwara. The shooting was condemned by Israel but praised by Palestinian militant groups. Those militant groups said the shooting attack was a response to an Israeli army incursion into Nablus that killed eleven Palestinians several days earlier. Soon after, Huwara was attacked by hundreds of Israeli settlers"US prods Netanyahu to condemn Smotrich ‘incitement’ after call to wipe out Huwara,"
March 2, 2023, ''

Times of Israel ''The Times of Israel'' (ToI) is an Israeli multi-language online newspaper that was launched in 2012 and has since become the largest English-language Jewish and Israeli news source by audience size. It was co-founded by Israeli journalist Dav ...

,'' retrieved March 3, 2023"Revenge Attacks After Killing of Israeli Settlers Leave West Bank in Turmoil,"
February 27, 2023, ''

,'' retrieved March 3, 2023 who torched 30 homes and cars (some sources say "200 buildings" across "four Palestinian villages"), and killed one Palestinian, in what international media sources characterized as an "unprecedented settler rampage". Witnesses and video evidence indicated that Israeli soldiers watched, but did not act to halt the violence."Israeli settlers rampage through Palestinian towns in revenge for shooting,"
February 27, 2023, ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' retrieved March 3, 2023 The Israeli army was criticized for not intervening, despite expecting the violence.

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

"Israeli campaign raises funds for torched Palestinian town,"
March 2, 2023, ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', retrieved March 3, 2023 But Israel's West Bank commander, Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fuchs, said the army was unprepared for the severity of the Huwara attack, calling it "a

pogrom A pogrom is a violent riot incited with the aim of Massacre, massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe late 19th- and early 20th-century Anti-Jewis ...

done by outlaws"—a term historically applied to mob attacks against eastern European Jews in the 1800s and early 1900s."Netanyahu under pressure from US, Israeli protests grow"
March 1, 2023,

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

, retrieved March 3, 2023 The rampage was condemned by both Israeli and Palestinian politicians. Following the attack, Israel's new

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

Finance Minister,

Bezalel Smotrich Bezalel Yoel Smotrich (; born 27 February 1980) is an Israeli far-right politician and lawyer who has served as the Minister of Finance since 2022. The leader of the National Religious Party–Religious Zionism, he previously served as a Kn ...

—now with new authority over the West Bank"Emboldened by Israel’s far right, Jewish settlers fan the flames of chaos,"
March 3, 2023, ''

,'' retrieved March 3, 2023—stated "I think the village of Huwara needs to be wiped out. I think the State of Israel should do it.""State Dept. scolds Israeli minister who called for destruction of Palestinian village: ‘Disgusting’,"
March 1, 2023, ''

Fox News The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...

,'' retrieved March 3, 2023"US faces growing call to deny entry to Israel's Bezalel Smotrich,"
March 2, 2023,

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which pro ...

, retrieved March 3, 2023 The remark triggered international condemnation from the U.N. Secretary General, the

United States State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...

(which called for Israeli Prime Minister

Benjamin Netanyahu Benjamin Netanyahu (born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who has served as the prime minister of Israel since 2022, having previously held the office from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021. Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime min ...

to renounce it),

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

, the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

and others."Smotrich's DC visit still on amid uproar, but US officials not planning to meet him,"
March 3, 2023, ''

,'' retrieved March 3, 2023 The remark came before a scheduled major fund-raising visit by Smotrich to the United States, and multiple Jewish rights organizations called for the State Department to deny him entry. In response to both external and internal criticism, Smotrich qualified his statement. He said he didn’t support completely wiping out Huwara, but rather called on Israel to wipe out militants and their supporters from Huwara in order to restore security in the region. In October 2023, after the

October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel On October 7, 2023, Hamas and several other Palestinian militant groups launched coordinated armed incursions from the Gaza Strip into the Gaza envelope of southern Israel, the first invasion of Israeli territory since the 1948 Arab–Israeli ...

and taking of

hostages A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized—such as a relative, employer, law enforcement, or government—to act, o ...

, a pizzeria in Huwara posted an advertisement seemingly mocking an elderly hostage. In response, the IDF proceeded to demolish the pizzeria.

Demography

Diaspora

Huwara has a considerable diaspora. Inhabitants of Sufir,

Beitunia Beitunia (), also Bitunya, is a Palestinian city located west of Ramallah and north of Jerusalem, in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate of Palestine, in the central West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the ci ...

Mukhmas Mukhmas () is a Palestinian territories, Palestinian village in the Jerusalem Governorate, located northeast of Jerusalem, in the center of the West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 1,36 ...

, and others can trace their lineage back to this village.Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in Shomron studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 355

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * (Saulcy, 1854, vol 1, p
102
*

External links

Huwara
Welcome to Palestine *Survey of Western Palestine, Map 14
IAAWikimedia commons

Howwarah Municipality Huwwara Town Profile

(ARIJ)
Huwwara, aerial photo
ARIJ {{Nablus Governorate Towns in the West Bank Nablus Governorate Municipalities of Palestine