Settlers returned to the Evyatar outpost on Sunday night in response to the murder of brothers Hillel Menachem Yaniv and Yagel Ya’acov Yaniv in a terrorist attack in Huwara earlier in the day.
Dozens of settlers arrived at the outpost with enough supplies to stay at the site for a long period, stating their intention to stay. Security forces attempted to evacuate the settlers overnight; dozens were still present on Monday morning.
By the afternoon, security forces began evacuating the settlers again, with right-wing legal organization Honenu reporting violence at the scene.
Ben-Gvir speaks out
Otzma Yehudit head and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to approve the legalization of Evyatar.
He arrived at the outpost in the afternoon with other members of his party, stressing in a statement that “the political answer to a [terror] attack is to establish this settlement."
“I contacted the prime minister this morning and asked him to allow families to stay and regulate the settlement. In any case, we intend to regulate it and we agreed on this in the coalition agreements.”
“I contacted the prime minister this morning and asked him to allow families to stay and regulate the settlement. In any case, we intend to regulate it and we agreed on this in the coalition agreements.”
-National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir
Ben-Gvir additionally referred to the settler riots that swept Huwara overnight, calling on settlers not to take the law into their own hands. “The one who needs to deal with terrorism and deter it is the Israeli government and not citizens.”
“It’s time to stop the policy of acceptance,” added Ben-Gvir. “The enemy on the other side understands the opposite of the message. The terrorists must be crushed, and it is time to return to the targeted assassinations and eliminate the leaders of the inciting terrorist organizations.”
The Otzma Yehudit party announced on Monday afternoon that it would not be present at a “40 signatures” debate taking place in the Knesset on Monday due to the attempts to evacuate Evyatar and the government’s security policies.
Religious Zionist MK Zvi Sukkot, one of the founders of Evyatar, joined the settlers who returned to the outpost on Sunday night and spent the night at the site.
“The right response to terrorism is construction and settlement – that is what will deter the vile terrorists and that is how we should respond – including a full return to Evyatar today,” said Sukkot.
Hadar Bar-Hai, a resident of Evyatar, said “We have returned home to Evyatar and we are excited to see the public support, the thousands who do not stop coming to the place to support, help and rebuild the settlement.
“We are calling on the Israeli government – you promised? Keep your promise! We are waiting and calling on everyone who wants to help – to come to Evyatar!”
The evacuation of Evyatar is the fourth such evacuation of an outpost in the past month. Nine buildings in the Givat Ronen outpost, located near Nablus, are also under threat of demolition this week.
The settlers who established Evyatar originally evacuated the outpost in July 2021 as part of a compromise with the Israeli government under which then-prime minister Naftali Bennett agreed to advance the legalization of the outpost. Since then, there has not been much progress concerning the arrangements of the deal.
Under the deal, the structures placed at the site at the time remained there and an army base was set up at the site. The Civil Administration conducted a survey of the land in the months after the deal was signed to establish which areas of land could be declared as state lands on which Evyatar could be established and found that about 60 dunams of the area could be declared as such, according to Ynet.
According to the arrangement, the settlers were meant to be allowed to establish a yeshiva at the site once the land was declared as state land and the government would move to legalize the outpost. Neither part of the deal came to fruition.