Jewish squatters in Hebron forcibly removed

updated 10:40 a.m. ET Aug. 7, 2007

HEBRON, West Bank - Israeli police, using sledgehammers, chain saws and power clippers, stormed a building in the biblical city of Hebron early Tuesday and dragged out hundreds of Jewish settlers who had holed up there illegally.

Settlers spit and hurled stones, water, oil and cement powder as police, backed by army troops, broke through fortified doors and carried out the squatters one by one. Three settlers sealed themselves inside a concrete bunker built for the standoff.

“This is a crime against justice and against Jewish history,” said Noam Arnon, a spokesman for the Hebron settlers. “I am sure we will return. Hebron has a long history and we will return.”

Danny Poleg, a police spokesman, said four soldiers, 14 police officers and 12 settlers were injured during the evacuation. Eleven settlers were briefly detained and two arrested.

Hebron, a frequent flashpoint of tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, is home to about 500 Jewish settlers living in heavily guarded enclaves among some 160,000 Palestinians. Clashes between the sides are frequent.

Israel controls the center of the city, including a disputed area that is holy to both Jews and Muslims — the traditional burial site of the biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and three of their wives. Its large military presence often hinders the movement of Palestinians.

The Palestinians control the rest of Hebron.

Police called pro-Hamas
“You’re Hamas people!” one woman screamed repeatedly at Israeli police while being dragged from the scene. The reference was to the radical Islamic Palestinian group that controls the Gaza Strip and is sworn to Israel’s destruction.

After forcing open one of the building’s doors, police encountered 30 youths singing songs who cursed the soldiers as they entered. Many sat atop a 4-foot-high concrete bunker in which three settlers had barricaded themselves. It took police three hours to bore through the neighboring wall to remove them.

The two-story building evacuated Tuesday stands in the central marketplace, which the army shut down in 1994 after Jewish militant Baruch Goldstein opened fire at the Tomb of the Patriarchs and killed 29 Palestinians.

The settlers initially moved into the structure — a vacant store — more than six years ago, variously evacuating and re-entering it as the case made its way through the Israeli court system.

Emilio Morenatti / AP Israeli police remove a Jewish settler from a house in Hebron on Tuesday.

Israel’s Supreme Court ruled the settlers’ presence there was illegal, but they ignored orders to evacuate. Hundreds of supporters moved into the building in recent days, reinforcing the doors and windows with metal and concrete in preparation for the raid.

Settlers claim the property was owned by Jewish families for decades until Jordanian authorities seized it after the 1948 Israeli war of independence. Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in 1967.

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