Israeli forces raze 3 structures in West Bank outpost

Security forces demolish three makeshift homes in the illegal outpost of Geulat Tzion, which has been razed and rebuilt roughly a dozen times since its establishment in 2011.

Prior to the demolition this afternoon, the hilltop community sat adjacent to the grounds of a new settlement being built for evacuees of the illegal Amona outpost, which was demolished in February 2017.

Two young families and a group of yeshiva students had been living in the cabins prior to the demolition, according to Tzvi Succot, a settler activist who heads the far-right Otzma Yehudit group.

Succot says Border Police at the scene used excessive force in clearing the outpost, whose residents, present at the time, included a pregnant woman with her young child.

A spokeswoman for the Civil Administration — the Defense Ministry body that oversees construction in the West Bank — tells The Times of Israel that forces carried out a “routine enforcement” against illegal building, without incident.

The spokeswoman adds that she is unaware of any families that had even been living there on a permanent basis, but the residents deny her claim.

— Jacob Magid