A few hours after Israeli Supreme Court Justice Elyakim Rubenstein issued a temporary injunction delaying the planned evacuation of the unauthorized settlement of Amona, south of the West Bank city of Nablus, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered its removal . Thousands of Israeli police and soldiers massed around the hilltop where the outpost was built, in preparation for the removal.
A group of settler youth protesting the evacuation of the outpost broke into an Israeli Army base yesterday and attacked troops before backing down. Thousands of extremist settlers and supporters streamed into the area yesterday, erecting barricades and barbed wire in an attempt to stop the demolition of the outpost.
"We are expecting a high level of violence," said Gidon Mor, a police commander at the scene, who was hit in the face by a rock thrown by protesters.
Seven members of the security forces were injured in the clashes, some by bottles and rocks thrown at them. Three of the injured were evacuated to hospitals for treatment. Four young protesters were arrested.
The evacuation of the tiny outpost leaves 244 West Bank settlements and 29 in East Jerusalem (according to U.S. State Department statistics). The last year has seen an expansion of the population of most of these settlements – nearly 200,000 Israelis are living illegally (according to United Nations statutes and the Geneva Convention) in the Palestinian West Bank, and another 200,000 live in East Jerusalem.
