(JTA) — The Israeli army was preparing to demolish 28 buildings in three West Bank outposts in response to a court order.
Israeli soldiers entered Maale Rehavam, Givat Asaf and Ramat Gilad on Wednesday as they prepared to evacuate the buildings, which include a synagogue.
Last November, Israel’s Supreme Court said the buildings must be razed within six months because they were built illegally on private land, according to Israeli reports.
The state also retroactively declared the rest of the three outposts legal, as the other buildings were built on state-owned land.
Fearing violent resistance to the demolitions from settlers, the Israeli army sent in hundreds of troops to carry out the operation, according to the Times of Israel.
“There is a false conception that settlements mean land theft,” a spokesman for Maale Rehavam told Haaretz. “For some people, this justifies stealing and destroying Jewish land.”
