18 settlers detained for ‘assaulting and obstructing security personnel’ during evacuation of illegal West Bank outpost

Israeli security forces arrested 18 settlers who rioted and attacked troops during the evacuation of an illegal outpost in the West Bank earlier today, the military says.

This morning, dozens of Border Police officers and Civil Administration soldiers arrived at the Givat Ora Yisrael outpost, near the Palestinian town of Salfit, to demolish it.

Givat Ora Yisrael has been evacuated by Israeli authorities in the past.

The IDF says the forces this morning “conducted a renewed enforcement operation against several illegal structures built under a closed military zone… where Israeli civilians have repeatedly engaged in violent and illegal activities.”

Israeli rioters from the illegal outpost “set tires on fire and placed roadblocks on main roads in the area in an attempt to prevent forces from the enforcement operation,” according to the military.

“As a result, roads and main routes remained blocked throughout the morning, disrupting the daily lives of residents of the area and causing roadblocks and traffic congestion across all roads in the area,” the military says, adding that the forces “cleared the roadblocks to restore order in the area.”

The IDF says that during the evacuation of the outpost, dozens of settlers “engaged in physical and verbal violence against security forces, despite the forces’ efforts to avoid physical confrontation.”

The troops detained a total of 18 suspects “for assaulting and obstructing security personnel,” as well as seized several vehicles belonging to the rioters, the army says. They were handed over to the police for questioning.

“Incendiary materials, weapons used for assault, and pepper spray were found in one of the vehicles,” the IDF adds.

The outpost was located in Area B of the West Bank, which is supposed to be off-limits to Israeli settlers.

But under the current government, settler extremists have been emboldened to establish illegal outposts not just in Israeli-controlled Area C of the West Bank, but also in Areas A and B, which are supposed to be under the administrative control of the Palestinian Authority.

Over 200 illegal settlement outposts have been established in the West Bank during the four-year term of the outgoing government, many of which have reportedly been set up with the coordination of settlement municipal authorities, the IDF, and other state agencies.

A small percentage of outposts are set up without such coordination, and it is these outposts that are often the target of enforcement by the Civil Administration, a quasi-military agency within the Defense Ministry controlled by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the architect of the government’s massive expansion of the settlement enterprise.

Residents of these outposts speak openly about being motivated by a desire to drive Palestinians off their lands in adjacent villages, with the effort moving beyond Area C to all other parts of the West Bank.