Thousands of settlers arrived on Wednesday afternoon at three designated spots in Judea and Samaria as part of their efforts to set up new outposts, despite Israeli authorities setting up roadblocks and trying to dissuade them from pursuing the controversial endeavor.
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The campaign was led by the pro-settlement group Nachala , which has been planning this for the past several months, calling Wednesday "groundbreaking day." At the end of the day, six spots were declared by the settlers as new outposts, Nachala said.
However, by Thursday afternoon Israeli troops had evicted most of the settlers and arrested at least five Peace Now and other left-wing groups tried to counter the campaign and confronted them, but the settlers refused to engage them and instead performed various dances and started singing songs, Nachala said.
Meanwhile, figures released by the government on Wednesday showed that the illegal housing starts in 2021 dropped by some 28% compared to 2020 and 83% compared to 2017. The report attributed this drop to the more effective enforcement since statutes were amended in 2018 as well as the aerial footage that has been used to track changes on the ground. The report said that the situation in Israel's south continues to be dire, particularly when it comes to unauthorized construction in Bedouin communities, despite a drop of some 50% in illegal housing starts there.
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