IDF says it demolished two illegal settlement outposts in the West Bank

IDF says it demolished two illegal settlement outposts in the West Bank

Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent

The Israeli military says it successfully evacuated two illegal outposts in the West Bank over the past day, from which settlers carried out violent attacks on Palestinians.

Civil Administration soldiers and Border Police officers operated against outposts near the Palestinian villages of Atara and Wadi al-Rahim, which the army says were “the source of repeated violent and illegal activity.”

The military says the forces dismantled and seized illegal construction components, temporary structures, vehicles and tents.

During an operation earlier today against an outpost near the village of Atara, the army says, “Israeli rioters barricaded themselves inside structures, while others attempted to reach the area.”

The troops used riot dispersal means and “completed the enforcement activity.”

More than 200 illegal settlement outposts have been established in the West Bank during the four-year term of the outgoing government, many of which have reportedly been set up with the coordination of settlement municipal authorities, the IDF and other state agencies.

A small percentage of outposts are set up without such coordination, and it is these outposts that are often the target of enforcement by the Civil Administration, a quasi-military agency within the Defense Ministry controlled by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the architect of the government’s massive expansion of the settlement enterprise.

The military says that “the establishment of illegal outposts diverts the attention of security forces from their defensive and counterterrorism missions and undermines the security of the area.”

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