Hundreds of settlers clash with Palestinians around illegal West Bank outpost
Hundreds of Israeli settlers clashed with Palestinians on Friday around the illegal outpost of Homesh in the West Bank, a symbolic site of the settlement movement that government leaders have vowed to dismantle under the law.
On their way to Homesh, some of the settlers entered the nearby Palestinian village of Burqa and threw stones at houses, fired weapons and set fire to fields, according to Palestinian reports.
Israel Defense Forces troops blocked entrances to the village and clashed with residents, injuring 15, Channel 13 reported.
Earlier on Friday, activists from the settlement watchdog group Peace Now arrived in the area and were barred from entering. The activists sought approval from military officials and were told it was illegal to travel to Homesh and demonstrate, the channel reported.
On Friday afternoon, as Shabbat approached, dozens of Border Patrol agents arrived in Homesh and confiscated equipment around the settlement’s yeshiva, including personal belongings of students and guests.
The Hatzalah Rescuers Without Borders emergency response group reported stone-throwing attacks on Israeli vehicles in the area, causing minor injuries to a woman.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Relief Service said nearly 90 Palestinians were injured by Israeli troops in the West Bank on Friday, and said at least one person was hit in the leg. The group said the Israelis used stun grenades, rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse Palestinian protesters, with the worst fighting taking place in the town of Huwara.
Also in the West Bank on Friday, a 15-year-old Palestinian boy was killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank town of Al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, after Palestinians allegedly threw stones and Molotov cocktails at soldiers in the region.
Palestinians throw stones at Israeli forces in the West Bank village of Burqa during clashes to protest an Israeli march to the wild Homesh outpost on April 19, 2022. (JAAFAR ASHTIYEH / AFP)
Homesh became a focal point for the settler movement. Government ministers have pledged to press ahead with the eviction of the outpost, which is the subject of an ongoing case in the High Court of Justice. The timetable for the expulsion is still unclear.
The issue threatened to become another crisis for the shaky coalition. Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked said on Wednesday she would try to prevent the settlement from being fully evacuated, despite statements from her coalition partners in favor of the move.
Relying on the law, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Tuesday that construction in Homesh was currently “illegal”.
“There is a law that says building in localities that were part of the disengagement is illegal,” Bennett said. The outpost is built on private Palestinian land.
In the government’s strongest statement, Defense Minister Benny Gantz said he would evacuate Homesh according to law, but he did not specify a time frame for action.
“Homesh will be evacuated,” Gantz said Monday at the opening of his Blue and White faction meeting. “Israeli law requires it.”
Illustrative: Visitors walk past the water tower at the ruins of the evacuated settlement of Homesh on August 27, 2019. (Hillel Maeir/Flash90)
Homesh was originally closed as one of four Jewish settlements in the northern part of Samaria in the West Bank included in the 2005 disengagement plan, which mainly focused on evacuating Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip .
Since its evacuation, Homesh has become a symbol of struggle for the settler movement and an irritant to local Palestinian communities.
Although families were officially evacuated from its borders, Homesh housed a destroyed and then rebuilt yeshiva. Its students and their supporters have strained relations with surrounding Palestinian communities.
In December 2021, yeshiva student Yehuda Dimentman was killed in a terrorist attack as he left the outpost.
On Tuesday, residents of the nearby Palestinian village of Burqa set fire to a structure in Homesh, and yeshiva students descended on them, sparking a rock-throwing brawl, according to Army Radio.
