Masked settlers from illegal Homesh outpost attack Palestinians in adjacent village

Fifty-nine Palestinians, two Israelis hurt as military separates clashing civilians in village of Burqa.

Masked Israeli settlers from the illegal outpost of Homesh attacked homes and residents of the adjacent Palestinian village of Burqa in the northern West Bank on Sunday.

Surveillance camera footage shared by the Peace Now settlement watchdog showed over a dozen masked settlers running into Burqa, some armed with sticks and others hurling stones at homes.

A military spokesperson told The Times of Israel that violent clashes had erupted between settlers and Palestinians at a junction near Burqa. “During the incident, those present threw stones at each other, and the Palestinians set off fireworks in the area,” the spokesperson said.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said it took two Israelis in their 20s  to a hospital in Israel, after they were lightly wounded by stones. A third Israeli was treated at the scene., medics said.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said it had treated 59 people in the area, mostly because of tear gas inhalation.

Homesh is only a small settlement outpost – illegal even under Israeli law – but its impact is outsized. As one of the four West Bank settlements dismantled in 2005 as Israel left the Gaza Strip, it has become a symbol for the settler movement.

Located deep in the West Bank, northwest of the Palestinian city of Nablus, Homesh has also become a site of intense settler violence, drawing a heavier military presence, and with it, more severe restrictions on Palestinians.

In March, the Knesset voted to lift the ban on entering the four West Bank settlements that were evacuated in 2005 – Homesh, Sa-Nur, Ganim and Kadim.

 Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich signed an order approving the construction of a yeshiva and the return if civilians to Homesh.

The relocation of the yeshiva to state-owned land places it closer to Palestinian villages, risking greater friction between the two sides and making it less likely that the Palestinians will be able to exercise their rights and gain access to their lands. The victory could also embolden the settlers to stage larger events that could erode these rights even further.

The Yesh Din human rights advocacy  organisation has written to Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara demanding a criminal investigation of Gallant and Smotrich for authorising the construction.

In the letter, Yesh Din asserted that the legal adviser to the IDF’s Judea and Samaria Division of the army’s Central Command had said that the new structure was illegal; Gallant and Smotrich nevertheless authorised its continued construction.

Michael Sfard — one of the lawyers who filed the letter to the Attorney-Ggeneral on behalf of Yesh Din — said the incident was one of the worst violations of the rule of law he had encountered. Sfard added that it constituted a form of constitutional crisis since it placed the army in a situation of having to choose between obeying instructions from government ministers and obeying the law.

READ MORE
Masked settlers from illegal Homesh outpost attack Palestinians in adjacent village (Times of Israel)

Rights group demands criminal probe of Gallant and Smotrich over Homesh yeshiva (Times of Israel)

What’s Homesh? The Illegal West Bank Outpost Causing a Diplomatic Storm (Haaretz)

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Photo: Masked Israeli settlers from the illegal Homesh outpost in the northern West Bank attack Palestinians in the adjacent village of Burqa on June 4 (Peace Now)