Israeli police used force to evict a small group of right-wing settlers who were squatting at an unauthorized outpost in the West Bank city of Hebron on Tuesday.
Nine settler families had taken up residence in vacant homes inside a Palestinian market and have refused to leave. Police detained four youths involved in protests against the removal of the squatters. The protesters threw rocks at police during the standoff and had attempted to set fire to several Palestinian shops and houses.
Acting Israeli Prime Minster Ehud Olmert told reporters in Jerusalem that he acted as he knew Prime Minister Sharon would have done. 'This applies to Hebron and anywhere else,' he emphasized. Olmert took control over the government after the 77-year-old Sharon suffered a severe stroke on January 4.
The protesters say that the shops where the nine families were living belonged to Jewish families forced out by the violence of Arab riots in Hebron back in the 1920s. The Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the squatters had to leave since they did not have government authorization to stay there.
Hebron is a holy city to Jews for its biblical significance. Presently, a few hundred Jewish settlers live there surrounded by 100,000 Palestinians.
