Evacuation efforts against illegal settlement outposts underway, settlers report

Settler activists report that Border Police forces and Civil Administration personnel are evacuating two illegal settlement outposts in the central and northern West Bank.

The activists allege that the security forces have used “unprecedented violence” in the evacuations, including the use of pepper spray and threatening to use taser guns on the settlers and protesters present at the site.

Footage posted by the activists from the Netzah Shmuel illegal outpost shows police officers tussling with the settlers and trying to detain them.

The settlers say several residents and activists have been injured.

According to the activists, one family and a group of youths live in the Netzah Shmuel farming outpost in the Benjamin region in the central West Bank.

The Ora Yisrael illegal farming outpost, home to two families and several youths in the Samaria region of the northern West Bank, is also being evacuated.

According to the Honenu legal aid organization, five people were arrested by the security services during the evacuation of Ora Yisrael, some of who are minors including a 14-year old.

More arrests were made during the evacuation of Netzah Shmuel.

Those arrested have been taken to the police station in the nearby settlement-city of Ariel. According to a statement by Honenu, Shin Bet agents spoke with and warned some of those arrested.

The police and Civil Administration do not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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, an agency within the Defense Ministry controlled by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the architect of the government’s massive expansion of the settlement enterprise.