Settler activists removed from at least 4 illegal outposts after reported order by PM

Border Police forces and personnel from the Civil Administration department of the Defense Ministry on Sunday removed settler activists from illegal outposts and encampments they had established in closed military zones in the West Bank.

According to a spokesperson for the activists, the inhabitants of four such outposts were removed and forced to leave the closed military zone.

The Civil Administration denied, however, that any illegal settlement outposts had been “evacuated” during the course of Sunday, saying instead merely that the closed military zone orders had been enforced and that no buildings had been demolished.

A spokesperson for the Civil Administration, which manages civilian affairs in the parts of the West Bank under full Israeli control, declined to say how many such orders had been enforced over the course of the day.

The action followed a report on Saturday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered the evacuation of 14 illegal West Bank outposts as a measure to combat a recent spike in settler violence.

According to the report by Channel 12, security agencies view the outposts as founts of Jewish extremism that serve as staging grounds for attacks on Palestinian villages and civilians, as well as on the IDF and police.

Security personnel also hoped to detain some 70 extremist activists and issue them with orders banning them from the West Bank, according to the report. But a spokesperson for Netanyahu and a senior government official both denied the report.

Outpost evacuations typically include the destruction of any buildings at the site. The spokesperson for the settler activists said that at the “majority” of the four sites cleared Sunday, the inhabitants of the outposts had been removed but buildings had not been knocked down, describing the enforcement action as a preliminary step before demolition.

MK Limor Son Har Melech of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party arrived at one of the encampments to protest the removals, strongly criticizing the enforcement action.

Son Har Melech went to an encampment close to the Gur Aryeh illegal settlement outpost in the Binyamin region of the central West Bank. There, she claimed that the police were removing the settlers from the closed military zone, but not Palestinian Bedouins who, she alleged, were also dwelling in the same area.

She claimed that after she left, security forces used knives to destroy sheets and mattresses belonging to the settler activists.

למרות ההכחשות של ״גורמים מדיניים״ בנוגע לפינויים, ירדתי לשטח ונתקלתי במציאות אחרת לגמרי. נקלעתי לפשיטה של מג״ב איו״ש (הכפופים לשר במשרד הביטחון ולאלוף הפיקוד) בגבעת גור אריה בבנימין והמראה היה מקומם.

המגבניקים הציגו בפניי צו שטח צבאי סגור, אלא שבאותו שטח בדיוק עומדים באין מפריע… pic.twitter.com/V2GB7C8t5w

— לימור סון הר מלך (@limor_sonhrmelh) December 7, 2025

According to the activists, long-term closed military zone orders were imposed at four sites, including the outpost next to Gur Aryeh as well as at the outposts of Mikne Avraham in the Gush Etzion district, Mevaser Shalom in the Samaria district, and Kol Mevaser in the Binyamin district.

Violence by extremist settler activists has ramped up in recent months during the olive harvest season, with repeated incidents of extremists beating Palestinian civilians and carrying out arson attacks and other forms of violence.

Dozens of illegal outposts have been established around the West Bank since the beginning of the war with Hamas in Gaza.

The heightened violence has generated international condemnation, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressing concern last month over the attacks.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.