IDF evacuates Samaria outpost, Religious Zionism MKs back settlers

Former residents of Evyatar often return to the town after terror attacks, and hundreds of settlers spent the night on the site following the deadly shooting in Huwara on Sunday.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

After an attempt to evacuate settlers in Evyatar overnight Sunday failed, IDF soldiers once again began forcibly removing people from the former community on Monday morning.

Evyatar, an outpost near Nablus (Shechem), has been repeatedly dismantled and depopulated by Israeli security forces since its founding in 2013.

The community was established after a 2013 terror attack that killed Evyatar Borovsky, and the outpost was named after him.

Former residents of Evyatar often return to the town after terror attacks, and hundreds of settlers spent the night on the site following the deadly shooting in Huwara on Sunday

“The correct response to terror is settlement construction. That is what will deter the vile terrorists and that is how we should respond, including a full return to the Evyatar settlement today,” said MK Tzvi Sukkot of the Religious Zionism party, who slept at the site alongside settlers.

Videos circulating on social media Monday morning depicted IDF soldiers carrying settlers off the site, some of them laying on stretchers.

The settlers’ resistance to leave the site appeared non-violent, and there were no reported clashes between them and the security forces.

As part of a compromise agreement with the Israeli government in 2021, settlers who had recently returned to Evyatar promised to voluntarily evacuate in exchange for a promise that homes and buildings at the site would not be demolished.

The Israeli government also promised to allow a yeshiva to continue operating at the site and to carry out survey work to determine if the hilltop land is classed as state land, which would pave the way for the outpost to be legalized.

However, the government has not fulfilled either of those promises.

“The return to Evyatar is our mission, and we intend to fulfill the agreement to return very soon,” said MK Orit Strock of the Religious Zionism party.