Illegal israeli settlements

Security forces arrived at the outpost adjacent to Ma’aleh Amos during the night, where they announced that the area was a closed military zone and demanded that all civilians disperse.

Border Police and IDF units evacuated four illegal outposts in Gush Etzion, Samaria, and Binyamin, following PM Netanyahu’s directive to clear 14 such sites across the West Bank.

Gush Etzion Regional Council reached out to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to request his assistance in dealing with the "anarchy" developing in the area in a letter sent in September.

The Jordan Valley Activist group claims it has hundreds of incidents of harassment and violence by the farm residents and have filed dozens of complaints to the police. 

There was a dramatic spike of 303% in housing starts from the first and second quarters of 2023.

One local settler was reported to have chained himself to the illegal structure in order to delay the planned demolition.

Such demolitions are “unacceptable,” the envoy said, as he discussed the sharp disagreement between the EU and Israel on this issue and indeed on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in general.

Netanyahu spoke out after the IDF's evacuation of a newly establish settler outpost, a move that was met with contention by some of the coalition.

The hilltop settlement has been subject to ongoing controversy and legal dispute since the early 2000s. Since then, there have been ownership claims to the land from Palestinian families.

“We have only just begun,” veteran settler leader and Nahala co-chair Daniella Weiss told reporters.