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 its removal.
update from:
Israeli settler extremists clash with soldiers near Amouna
created: Tuesday, 31 January 2006 16:04
by: Saed N. Bannoura
A group of settler youth protesting the evacuation of the illegal settlement outpost near Amona in the Palestinian West Bank broke into an Israeli Army base on Tuesday and attacked troops before backing down.
After Sunday’s ruling by the Israeli High Court, the Amona outpost is scheduled to be demolished this week, but thousands of extremist settlers and supporters streamed into the area yesterday, erecting barricades and barbed wire to attempt to stop the demolition of the outpost.
The Israeli Army commander for the area stated in a radio interview Sunday evening, "Are we preparing for extreme situations? The answer is yes". Israeli Army Radio reported Tuesday that Naveh had ordered troops to arrest all demonstrators who use physical or verbal violence.
The evacuation of the tiny outpost is scheduled to take place on Thursday, leaving 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.
