At least 23 police officers and one youth were moderately injured Thursday morning when clashes broke out at during the evacuation of two caravans in the Samaria outpost of Amona.
Two families and dozens of youths had been staying in the caravans since mid-December.
According to police, forces arriving in Amona early Thursday morning were met with 300 rioters who burned tires at the entrance to the outpost, poured oil on the access road and threw rocks at police forces. Police used riot control tactics, not including rubber bullets, to control the demonstrators, police said.
Dozens of youths remain holed up inside the caravans.
In mid-December, former Amona residents who were forcibly evacuated in February 2017, announced they had purchased roughly 9 acres of land in the outpost.
Under the leadership of the Binyamin Regional Council, the former residents set up two portable structures at the site, even holding a ceremony for laying the cornerstone that was attended by a number of ministers and lawmakers. A majority of the residents, however, chose not remain at the site. In their place, a number of youths took turns staying in the caravans.
The IDF Civil Administration, the Israeli governing body that operates in Judea and Samaria and has the authority to approve the purchase, is examining the acquisition. The process is expected to take a number of months at least.
The New Right party slammed what it called the government's "selective enforcement" of the law in Judea and Samaria.
In a statement, the party called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "evacuate today the illegal Arab construction in Khan al-Ahmar. A law is a law is a law." It said the decision to enforce the law when it came to Amona but not "the wild and illegal Arab construction in [the Palestinian Bedouin encampment of] Khan al-Ahmar sends a sign of weakness and hesitation from the Israeli government to the Palestinians and harms the State of Israel's deterrence. We call on the prime minister to keep his promise as of today."
Labor party chairman Avi Gabbay said, "The violence by a handful of Amona evacuees against the security forces cannot be tolerated. It should be handled with a firm hand and the evacuation should be completed in accordance with the court's rulings.
He said that "a handful of extremists in the outposts and the Knesset have gotten used to controlling the government and seeing the Netanyahu government give in to every one of their demands. Israel's citizens deserve a government that does not give into the violence of a handful of extremists."
In a statement, Peace Now said, "There is no limit to the cynicism and flouting of the law by the settler Right, which, with the encouragement of rabbis and politicians, sends hilltop youths to attack police officers.
"The time has come to make it clear to settlers and their leaders that they are not above the law and to prosecute those responsible for the violent riot to the full extent of the law.
"It is hard not to wonder how the security forces would have behaved if these were Palestinian or Israeli Arab rioters," the organization said.
