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An Israeli policewoman helps a fellow police officer clean paint thrown at him by settler youths, Friday. (AP)
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A Jewish settler boy confronts Israeli border police officers in Hebron Friday. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners May 7, 2006 |
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Israeli police, using a buzz saw to remove a barricaded metal door, stormed a home in the volatile city of Hebron on Sunday, forcibly expelling three families and dozens of Jewish supporters holed up inside.
Jewish settlers outside the building tried to force their way inside immediately after police broke down the door. Police, dressed in riot gear, dragged the struggling protesters away, but scuffles between the two sides continued outside the house.
Earlier in the day, officers and settlers clashed after hundreds of police, backed by soldiers, massed for the evacuation.
The operation will be an important test for the new government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who plans a broad pullout from Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank") during his four-year term.
Olmert, whose Cabinet is to convene for the first time later Sunday, was widely criticized for his handling of the evacuation of the tiny outpost of Amona in February while he headed a caretaker government. More than 200 police and teenage protesters were injured, and critics accused police of using excessive force.
Hebron, a city holy to Jews and Muslims, is home to about 160,000 Palestinians and some 500 Jews who live in heavily fortified enclaves.
Three settler families 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, Avi Harush, one of the police commanders of the evacuation, said.
The Supreme Court had initially ordered the squatters removed by Friday, but then postponed the eviction because of the Jewish Sabbath on Saturday.
Dozens of young supporters had also gathered at the house by Sunday morning to reinforce the settler families' resistance.
About ten police were assigned to carry out each protester. Before they could begin removing the squatters, settlers outside tried to enter, and police dragged them away, sometimes slapping the protesters to calm their thrashing.
Inside the building, officers tried to appeal to the Jewish families -- some with toddlers and babies -- to leave the building peacefully. Some left of their own accord, but one woman was dragged out as a policewoman carried out her baby.
Harush said the operation would proceed slowly because the building was very dark, and the stairwell very narrow.
"There are children inside, even babies," he told Israel Radio. "We don't want one hair on their head to be hurt."
Fighting erupted before daybreak when officers cleared a crowd of protesters gathered outside the home. Settlers inside threw stones and bottles at security forces, wounding 13 police, police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said.
Rosenfeld and rescue services didn't have immediate details on how many Jews were hurt.
Eli Zamir, head of the Israeli police department in Hebron, said two firebombs were thrown at security forces in the early clashes. "This is the crossing of a red line," Zamir fumed.
Reinforcements were called in after the clashes broke out, police said.
About 700 police, reinforced by 1,000 soldiers, were mobilized to evict the squatters and their sympathizers, whose number Rosenfeld estimated at 30 to 60.
Olmert plans to withdraw from much of the West Bank in an effort to draw Israel's final borders by 2010. He says uprooting tens of thousands of settlers from their homes is necessary to improve Israel's security and guarantee its future as a democracy with a Jewish majority.
Jewish residents bitterly oppose the plan. Many are observant Jews who say God promised the land to the Jewish people.
Rabbi Israel Schlussel told Israel Radio that he and the other settlers inside the home wouldn't leave voluntarily.
"It is our house, bought with our money, and the court wronged us," he said. "Justice was not done."
Settlers also resisted last summer's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, though no serious violence took place.
In Gaza, moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of the militant Hamas group failed to resolve their deepening differences during a late-night meeting Saturday but agreed to talk again on Sunday.
The two men met for four hours to try to end disputes over their division of powers, and policy toward Israel. Hamas' refusal to disarm and recognize Israel has led to Western and Israeli economic sanctions that have financially crippled the Palestinian government.
Abbas favors holding peace talks with Israel.
The financial crunch has left the Hamas-led government unable to pay the salaries of 165,000 government workers for the past two months. The Palestinian Authority is the largest employer in the West Bank and Gaza, so its failure to pay salaries hits the Palestinian territories hard.
On Saturday, hundreds of Palestinians staged strikes and demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza to demand payment of the overdue salaries, in the first public signs of discontent with the government's handling of the international financial squeeze.
AP contributed to this report.
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