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Israeli settlers barricade in illegally-built homes, resisting eviction

Xinhua, February 28, 2017 Adjust font size:

Settlers reacted with violence and barricaded themselves as Israeli police began to carry out a court-ordered evacuation of nine illegally-built homes in the West Bank settlement of Ofra on Tuesday.

Hundreds of residents and pro-settler youths barricaded themselves in the houses, confronting with hundreds of police and paramilitary border police officers.

Five officers sustained light injuries resulting from bites and beatings by the settlers, said Luba Samri, a spokeswoman for the police. Two teen activists were arrested for rioting, she said.

Samri said that three homes were evacuated while youths barricade in six other homes.

She said that the police "continue all the time its efforts for a dialogue with the settlers and local leadership to avoid unnecessary frictions and injuries."

The Supreme Court had decided that the homes on the outskirts of the settlement of Ofra should be demolished because they were illegally built on private Palestinian land.

The settlers petitioned the court after the parliament passed a law on Feb. 6 that allows in certain cases to retroactively legalize settlement and outpost homes that were built without permits.

However, on Monday, the court rejected the petition after it found that the law is not applicable to the homes built on plots that the court had already ruled, such as the homes in Ofra.

Army Radio reported that some police forces already arrived on early Tuesday morning in the settlement to prevent youths from barricading themselves inside the buildings.

On Feb. 1, settler residents and their supporters reacted with violence when the police carried out a court-ordered evacuation of the illegal outpost of Amona, built on private Palestinian land without official permits.

The settlements are considered illegal under international law, and the international community sees them as an obstacle to peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

The settlements were built on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War. Endit