Israeli forces begin demolishing structures on Homesh hilltop

Two homes are being demolished, but the Homesh yeshiva is still standing.

 Evacuation of modular structures on the Homesh hilltop in the West Bank, December 24, 2021. (photo credit: HOMESH YESHIVA)
Evacuation of modular structures on the Homesh hilltop in the West Bank, December 24, 2021.
(photo credit: HOMESH YESHIVA)

The IDF, Border Police and the Israeli Civil Administration began demolishing modular structures that were erected over the past week at the site of the former Homesh settlement in the West Bank.

The security forces who entered the hilltop have stopped water containers from getting in, leaving some 70 yeshiva students and four families, including 10 children, with no access to water, the Samaria Regional Council announced. 

"The Homesh yeshiva students are receiving worse treatments than war prisoners did during the Yom Kippur War - they had access to water," said Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan. 

"An Israeli government evacuating Jews from the place where a Jew was killed is what is giving the Arabs the sense that they rule the land," said Noam party head Avi Maoz (Religious Zionist Party) on Friday. 

 A family in the hilltop settlement of Homesh after the modular structures were taken down by police, December 24, 2021.  (credit: NACHALA)
A family in the hilltop settlement of Homesh after the modular structures were taken down by police, December 24, 2021. (credit: NACHALA)

"Kill a Jew, and the Jews will run away," he said, calling on the government to stop the evacuation.

 Evacuation of modular structures on the Homesh hilltop in the West Bank, December 24, 2021. (credit: ISRAEL POLICE)
Evacuation of modular structures on the Homesh hilltop in the West Bank, December 24, 2021. (credit: ISRAEL POLICE)

"Bennett and Gantz: Thanks to you, the terrorist are dancing and the Jews are crying," Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan. 

"Shame!," he said. "Naftali Bennett, your government is giving support to terror! Coalition members are hugging [leader of the northern Islamic Movement] Sheikh Raed Salah and you're demolishing homes in Homesh? 

"You promised the building of the land and we are experiencing destruction!" 

This comes in the wake of the rally of 15 thousand activists on the West Bank hilltop on Thursday to protest the evacuation of the Homesh yeshiva, which at present remains intact. 

"The thousands who marched yesterday will continue marching all the way to Jerusalem, am yisrael (the people of Israel) will not give up!" said Dagan. 


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Last week a student from the yeshiva, Yehuda Dimentman, 25, was killed when Palestinian gunmen sprayed the car in which he was a passenger with bullets. 

The Dimentman family and the activists at the rally demanded that the government rebuild the settlement and authorize the yeshiva.

 Water containers that serviced the modular structures that were set up in the Homesh hilltop, destroyed by police, December 24, 2021.  (credit: HOMESH YESHIVA)
Water containers that serviced the modular structures that were set up in the Homesh hilltop, destroyed by police, December 24, 2021. (credit: HOMESH YESHIVA)

Homesh is one of the four northern Samaria settlements that the IDF razed as part of the 2005 Gaza Disengagement plan. The High Court of Justice has held that the land on which Homesh was built is private Palestinian property and has upheld the rights of Palestinian farmers to access their land.