IDF Razes New Structures at Homesh

Confrontations between security forces and local youths were reported at Homesh, the outpost where Palestinian terrorists shot and killed a yeshiva student and wounded two others on Thursday night.

After reported altercations between soldiers and Israeli youths on Motzei Shabbos, the IDF on Sunday morning sent in bulldozers and demolished several recently constructed plywood buildings at the illegal site.

Authorities declared Homesh a closed military zone, an IDF spokesperson confirmed. So far, no arrests have been made.

The army accused the settlers of breaking into the outpost, assaulting the soldiers on guard and putting up additional structures at the site.

“Troops from the IDF, Border Police, and Israel Police tried to block the entrance of the settlers, who used physical and verbal violence, vandalized military property and blocked the paths of security forces. In addition, an IDF soldier was lightly wounded after getting hit by one of the settler’s cars,” the military said in a statement on Sunday evening.

A spokesperson for the Civil Administration, which oversees day-to-day management of Yehuda and Shomron, said that only the structures built over the weekend were taken down, not the yeshiva building, which was left standing.

The demolition came as the family of the terror victim Yehudah Dimentman Hy”d demanded that the government to legalize the Homesh outpost.

“I turn to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett — there is a yeshiva in Homesh, we need to legalize it and secure it. I turn to you and ask you to allow the people of Israel to go up there,” said his widow, Ettya Dimentman yblc”t, in a direct appeal to the prime minister, a member of the right-wing Yamina party, according to The Times of Israel.

“The blood of Yehuda is too precious. It is impossible to return to routine after the blood of such a pure soul has been shed,” she said.