Massive police presence outside Jewish outpost in West Bank ahead of evacuation

Over 3,000 Israeli police officers arrived at the illegal West Bank outpost of Amona on Wednesday morning to carry out a court-ordered eviction of the outpost, as activists barricaded themselves inside.

Live broadcast on Israeli TV showed more than a dozen youths blocking the entrance to the outpost, burning tires, and hurling stones in an attempt to prevent the forces from entering.

The forces assembled at the outskirts of the outpost, urging the settlers to leave peacefully, without clashes.

Some of Amona's 42 families have already left, but hundreds of activists and residents barricaded themselves in the outpost and said they are determined to resist the eviction.

Over the past months, the dispute over Amona became a symbol of the hardline settlement movement and a major issue in Israeli politics and the society at large, with implications for the fate of the entire settlement movement.

Israel's top court ruled in 2014 that Amona must be evicted because it was built on private Palestinian land. The court later set Feb. 8 as the final date for the eviction.

The eviction would be the first time the Israeli government has evacuated a Jewish outpost in four years.

Amona, east of Ramallah city, is the largest among about a hundred outposts that are scattered across the West Bank. These outposts were erected by ultra-right settlers without permits from the Israeli authorities but the governments often have turned a blind eye to their construction.

There are an additional 120 settlements that Israel considers as legal.

Both outposts and settlements are illegal under international law as they were built on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War, where the Palestinians wish to build their future state. Endit