Following a situation assessment held Monday, against the backdrop of the recent Jewish riots in the West Bank, the security establishment decided to evacuate three outposts from which nationalist crime recently originated. “The evacuation is security-driven, due to fear of further incidents,” according to a security source.
The security system fears further escalation, after Sunday night’s incident in which right-wing activists tried to break into a base in Binyamin. One of the three outposts is the outpost from which the rioters came out in Binyamin on Friday evening, where the reserve battalion commander “G‑” and his team were attacked near Ramallah.
Footage of the nighttime disturbances at the Binyamin Police Station
(Video: IDF spokespersons unit)
In the Etzion sector, two outposts were evacuated and, in an attempt to delay one of them, young rioters set a fire in the area. The fire spread toward the settlement of Misad, requiring a large number of firefighting teams and five firefighting aircraft.
Meanwhile, one of the soldiers from the battalion of G‑, who experienced violence at the hands of settlers, shared what’s happening to him: “The feelings here in the battalion are very difficult. We, the soldiers of the entire battalion—and especially the command post soldiers who were present at the incident and in many other events confronting the Jewish rioters—are in total helplessness.”
According to him: “Many of us live in the settlements. We were called up time and again to reserves over the past two years and each time we dropped our lives and immediately showed up for the mission; we carried out countless counter‑terror operations and protected the settlements. Now we feel our blood has been released and that we are in an impossible situation where the criminals roam freely. They spread real blood libels about us and incite harm against us.”
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Right-wing activists in front of the Binyamin Military Police Base with a sign reading "The Battalion Commander is a traitor."
“We are forced to hide and fear for our safety and wellbeing, while politicians and public figures allow themselves to echo false messages that harm us and place us in real danger,” he added, “and all this while we are required to continue serving and defending the settlers here, including those very people who are now chasing us.”
“We feel that the establishment does not understand the severity of the event, that it gives us verbal support but not in action, that the IDF spokesman is very slow in presenting the army’s version of events and in publishing the records that prove our version. And above all, that there is no fundamental treatment of the problem of Jewish rioters, and that the next incident—or heaven forbid, physical harm to us—is only a matter of time,” he concluded.
During last night, dozens of right-wing activists rioted at the entrance to the Binyamin Division base, located near the settlement of Beit El in the Binyamin hills, in protest of the clashes and serious incidents near Ramallah over the weekend, and over the shooting injury of a 14-year-old boy. The incident began with a demonstration involving hundreds of activists, then dozens of hill youth rioted, attacked IDF forces there, and vandalized security vehicles. A sign they waved read: “The battalion commander is a traitor.”
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The initial incident against IDF forces occurred on the night between Friday and Saturday, after the police and army forces moved to disperse a gathering of some 40 right-wing rioters who had come to the village of Malach in the Binyamin area, near Ramallah. According to security sources, the Jewish civilians violently attacked the forces. Six suspects were arrested at the end of the incident.
The reserve soldiers from the regional battalion who arrived at the spot reported that they were attacked by the settlers with blows, strangulation and stoning. Among those attacked was the battalion commander himself. In addition to the assaults, the settlers also punctured the tires of security forces’ vehicles. On the other hand, teenagers and young people present there claim that the clash broke out after the battalion commander got out of his vehicle and began firing into the air, while shouting and threatening them. The army, in contrast, said that three warning shots were fired into the air only after the situation “got out of control.”