Army demolishes home in predawn raid at outpost
The IDF and Border Police led a predawn raid into the West Bank outpost of Kumi Uri, near Yitzhar, on Tuesday to demolish two illegally built homes, settlers reported.
They immediately took to social media and published a Facebook live feed of security forces in action.
Activists and Yitzhar residents gathered in solidarity with the affected families. Those outside could only watch as security forces move up the hill toward them from the Palestinian village of Urif.
As they waited, one of the activists strummed on a guitar, while teens sang religious songs, clapped and danced.
When the forces arrived and surrounded the structures, one of the activists yelled at them that they were “cowards.”
But the singing continued as security forces in riot gear moved into one of the structures.
“Happiness is a good deed,” they sang as the streamed in.
When the forces arrived and surrounded the structures, one of the activists yelled at them that they were “cowards.”
The structures were completed two months ago and are located in Area B of the West Bank, where, under the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority is in charge of civilian matters.
All settlers live in Area C of the West Bank, which is under full Israeli military and civil control. The IDF has in the past demolished structures built in Area B. According to the settlers it does not need to issue demolition orders before doing so.
A spokesman for the outpost said after many hours, security forces demolished only one home, but left the other intact where a woman, who is nine months’ pregnant, lives. They also confiscated a number of modular storage units.
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories unit said it had removed six mobile structures built illegally without permits.
Settlers complained that the security forces had been excessively violent.
It’s “shameful” and “disgraceful” that Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and the Civil Administration for Judea and Samaria have failed to tackle illegal Arab construction, they said, “but they have no problem throwing young families out of their homes in the middle of the night.”