Israeli police were preparing Thursday to evacuate the synagogue of an unauthorized West Bank settlement after operations overnight cleared nearly all residential buildings. Approximately 200 protesters are barricaded in the synagogue, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Officers were talking with the community leaders of the outpost, Amona, to ensure the protesters and residents would be removed without major incident, he added. Since the evacuation began Wednesday, 24 police officers were injured and 13 people arrested, police said, adding that more than 800 people were removed from the area. Israel's top court ruled in 2014 that the hilltop outpost of Amona, with 280 residents and located some 20 kilometres north of Jerusalem, was built on land belonging to Palestinians from surrounding West Bank towns and had to be vacated by February 8. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that he was establishing a team tasked with building a new settlement for the evacuees. Late Tuesday, he approved more than 3,000 houses in West Bank settlements, including 2,000 set for immediate construction. Hanan Ashrawi, a top Palestinian Liberation Organization official, said Wednesday that Netanyahu was "destroying the very foundations of the two-state solution" and called for international intervention. "We cannot afford four more years as Israel rushes to complete the unjust and illegal transformation and ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem and the final annexation of the occupied West Bank," she said.
