Israeli police armed with batons evicted dozens of Jewish squatters from a Palestinian home in the volatile West Bank city of Hebron yesterday, in an important first test for Israel's new government and its plans to uproot tens of thousands of settlers.
The clearing of the three-story building was over in about two-and-a-half hours, and encountered no serious resistance. The operation was in marked contrast to the violent evacuation of part of a tiny West Bank settlement outpost in February, when more than 200 police and teenage protesters were injured.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was widely criticized for his handling of that operation while heading a a caretaker government. In related news, Olmert told his Cabinet at its first meeting yesterday that he would brook no illegal West Bank settlement outposts.
PHOTO: AP
Police stormed the occupied building in Hebron after sawing through a barricaded metal door. They appealed to the settlers -- some with toddlers and babies -- to leave peacefully, and some agreed. But others had to be dragged out, including one woman whose infant was bawling as officers carried it out.
Jewish settlers outside the building tried to force their way inside immediately after police sawed off the door. But police dragged the struggling protesters away, sometimes slapping them to calm their thrashing.
In all, three squatter families and 27 young sympathizers from the Hebron area were removed from the building, police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said.
Nineteen security force mem-bers were injured, and 17 settlers were arrested, he said.
Neither he nor the rescue services had an immediate accounting of settler wounded, but Israel's Army Radio said seven settlers were slightly injured.
Avi Harush, one of the police commanders for the operation, said shortly after the evacuation began that it would proceed slowly because the building was very dark, and the stairwell very narrow.
"There are children inside, even babies," Harush told Israel Radio. "We don't want one hair on their head to be hurt."
Hebron, a city holy to Jews and Muslims, is home to about 160,000 Palestinians and some 500 ultranationalist Jewish settlers who live in heavily fortified enclaves.
Three settler couples and their eight children moved into an abandoned home near the settler enclave of Avraham Avinu about a month ago, presenting documents allegedly showing they had rented the property from its Palestinian owner. Israeli authorities later determined the documents were forged, Harush said.
The Supreme Court ordered the removal of the squatters, whose ranks were bolstered by dozens of young sympathizers.
Hours before the eviction began, officers and settlers clashed as officers cleared a crowd of protesters gathered outside the home.
Settlers inside threw stones, bottles and firebombs at security forces, police said.
Some officers were splattered with white paint that settlers had lobbed.
Reinforcements were called in after the clashes broke out, police said.
All told, about 700 police, reinforced by 1,000 soldiers, were mobilized for the operation, police said.
Rosenfeld said border police would increase the number of patrols in the Hebron area over the next few days to maintain public order.
Olmert took a hard line against other unauthorized settler activity at the first meeting of his Cabinet yesterday, vowing that he would not let illegal West Bank settlement outposts stand, his office said.
"In every case where the law is violated, we will respond without compromise, and we won't reconcile ourselves to illegal facts on the ground," his office quoted him as saying.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS