Israel police evict wildcat settlers as deadline looms

Israeli police began evicting settlers from homes in a West Bank outpost today ahead of a court deadline to leave structures partially built on Palestinian land, an AFP correspondent reported.

Young boys in tears were followed by a young woman holding a baby, as they were escorted out of their home in the Netiv Haavot neighbourhood of Elazar settlement, south of Jerusalem.

They left without any resort to physical contact by the unarmed police.

In February, Israel's Supreme Court gave the settlers until June 15 to vacate 15 homes found to have been built partly on private Palestinian land.

An estimated 2,000 people, most of them young activists, had travelled to the outpost to support the settlers and protest against their eviction.

Large Israeli flags were flying on some of the rooftops, as well as signs pledging to return to the site.

After morning prayers, men sang and danced in a show of faith outside the homes to be razed.

Police entered house after house, escorting residents and supporters or in some cases carrying them out without objection. By the early afternoon, only one house remain occupied, with dozens of youths standing on its roof, as police assessed how to tackle the potentially volatile situation.

Resident Aviad Amitai said that today marked the start of a three-day process, with police clearing people from the houses subject to the court order before demolishing them.

"We have a peaceful protest, we are law-abiding people, we are not going to show any violence here," Amitai told AFP.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that while residents did not want the event to be violent, "we've seen in previous evacuations police officers being injured as a result of stones or violent incidents."
Rosenfeld said the eviction of the 15 families was expected to take "at least several hours, probably the whole day."