Amona, West Bank — Israeli forces completed the demoliton of a West Bank settlement outpost on Wednesday, ending a violent operation in which dozens of people were injured in clashes between police and Jewish settlers.
The army said all nine houses slated for demolition were reduced to rubble by late afternoon. Some forces remained in the area to prevent further unrest.
More than 160 people were wounded and dozens arrested in the confrontations at Amona, a hilltop enclave in the heart of the West Bank. The demolition of the nine houses was seen as a test for acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who has said he would act with determination against settlers violating the law.
It was the first forced removal of Jewish settlers since last summer's pullout from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank, and was on par with the most violent scenes of the Gaza pullout. Both settlers and policeman were among the wounded, with police saying 31 of their officers had been hurt.
In all, about 5,000 demonstrators, including 1,800 right-wing extremists holed up in the nine homes, were being forcibly removed from the Amona outpost, and police said at least 40 people had been arrested.
The evacuation followed a Supreme Court order earlier in the day.
“This conflict has to end with one bottom line, that we enforce the law against the rioters,” Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz told Army Radio.
West Bank settler Uriel Shub, 18, said tensions during Wednesday's evacuation were “much worse” than last summer's Gaza pullout, but he said settlers have no choice but to take a tough stand. “If there is no resistance, the withdrawals will continue,” he said.
About an hour into the operation at Amona, troops reached the first home and began tearing down window shutters with crowbars. They dragged out protesters through the windows, as settlers dropped paint-filled balloons and stones on them from above.
Troops then climbed a ladder to reach rioters barricaded on a rooftop, with settlers pushing them back with sticks and hurling eggs and sand at them. Other troops rode the shovel of a bulldozer to the roof and began forcing settlers into the shovel to bring them down.
Across the outpost, settlers pelted troops with stones as soldiers tried to hold the crowds back with clubs and water cannons. Thick, black smoke from burning tires filled the air.
A field clinic was set up to treat the wounded, and people milled about with their heads wrapped in bandages and wearing T-shirts splattered with blood.
Two right-wing Jewish members of parliament were among those wounded in the clashes. Effie Eitam, a legislator from the National Union Party, stood among the protesters with blood streaming from his forehead.
“They are treating people here like Arabs,” said legislator Arieh Eldad in a telephone interview from the scene with Israel Radio. Mr. Eldad said he suffered a broken arm.
About 6,000 Israeli security forces moved into the outpost after Israel's Supreme Court cleared the last hurdle to the clearance on Wednesday morning. Under the court order, nine homes built illegally on private Palestinian land were to be demolished.
Earlier in the day, a Supreme Court judge had delayed the order to discuss the matter further after the settlers agreed to a compromise, but that was overruled by a larger panel on the court.
Since the mid-1990s, extremist Jewish settlers have established dozens of unauthorized outposts to prevent the transfer of disputed land to the Palestinians. The Palestinians hope to set up a state in areas Israel captured in 1967, which include the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.
Under the internationally backed plan to end violence in the region, the so-called road map to peace, Israel has committed to dismantle about two dozen outposts but so far has taken little action. Amona is north of Jerusalem, near the Palestinian town of Ramallah.
The army had set up roadblocks Monday to prevent large-scale infiltrations into Amona. By Tuesday morning, however, hundreds of opponents of the evacuation – most of them teenagers – had slipped into the hilltop community and into Ofra.
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