Homesh evacuation concludes

VIDEO - The evacuation of the 300 right-wing activists from the destroyed settlement of Homesh in the West Bank has concluded Wednesday, roughly three hours after the operation began. Two young teenage girls were arrested in the course of the evacuation on suspicion of assaulting policemen. Large numbers of police and IDF officers started evacuating the activists, mostly teenagers, at about 7:30 a.m. Some of the youths at the place have tried resisting and cursed the policemen, who carried them by force into buses. After having spent two days at the site, the activists were ordered to leave Homesh on Wednesday. Some 700 policemen took part in the operation, alongside 300 soldiers who secured the evacuation. Police have notified the activists that Homesh was a closed military zone and that they must leave the place immediately. The settlers spent the night setting up barriers using stones in order to make the evacuation more difficult. Non-violent confrontation (Photo: Tsafrir Abayov) Earlier, one of the older activists thanked the younger ones for staying in Homesh despite the cold nights and harsh conditions, and told them, "The same forces that came to evacuate us six months ago will come today. What will happen next is a show for the media, and we don't care about it. if they take us out of here by force – let them." Boaz Haetzni, one of the organizers of the march to Homesh, stressed, "The instructions were clear – no to violence." On Tuesday, police officials warned that should the settlers fail to evacuate willingly, the government would be inclined to give the green light for the forceful evacuation of the several dozen teenage settlers who vowed to put up a tough resistance. Yossi Dagan, an organizer of the plan to reoccupy the former settlement, told Ynet on Tuesday that "our aim is not to confront the security forces but to build Homesh anew and therefore, as far as we are concerned, the issue is not a struggle. If they evacuate us we will return." Raanan Ben Zur contributed to the report

Homesh evacuation concludes

(VIDEO) Security forces succeed in concluding evacuation of destroyed West Bank settlement without injuries or violence