Israeli forces begin operation to evict settlers from illegal outpost

Israeli police moved into an outpost in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday (February 1) to remove settlers who Israel’s Supreme Court ruled have been living illegally on privately-owned Palestinian land.

Settlers and dozens of pro-settlement activists who flocked to the Amona outpost to protest against the evacuation burned tyres and piled makeshift barricades at its entrance.

But there was no immediate violence as columns of unarmed police walked towards prefabricated homes where some 330 settlers live. Several families with small children walked out of the outpost minutes before the operation began.

But others said they would stay put and peacefully resist eviction.

Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, on a visit to the settlement of Ariel, called for restraint.

“In a democratic state, it’s the basic right of the settlers to protest and I hope that the protest will remain within the framework of a legal protest,” he said.

Hours before the police operation, Israel announced plans for 3,000 more settlement homes in the West Bank, the third such declaration in eleven days since U.S. President Donald Trump took office.

Trump has signalled he could be more accommodating toward such projects than his predecessor Barack Obama.

An announcement a week ago by Israel that it would build some 2,500 more homes in the West Bank, territory captured in a 1967 Middle East war, drew rebuke from the Palestinians and from the EU. It followed approval of more than 560 new homes in East Jerusalem days before.

Palestinians want the West Bank and Gaza Strip for an independent state, with its capital in East Jerusalem. Israeli troops and settlers withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

The legal battle over Amona has dragged on for eight years. Under the latest Supreme Court ruling, Amona had to be evacuated by Feb. 8.