IDF and police forces on Sunday morning demolished three structures that had been built during the night in the Homesh settlement, home to the Hesder yeshiva that was attended by Yehuda Dimentman H’yd who was murdered in a terrorist ambush last Thursday.
עכשו הצבא הורס את ישיבת חומש כפרס לטרור,
מדינה עלובה עם ראש ממשלה רופס תקראו מה הוא אמר היום
בנט שנכח בחפ”ק המבצע ועקב מקרוב אחרי המצוד, אמר הבוקר כי הוא מברך את כוחות הביטחון על “סגירת מעגל מהירה”
ידע כל מחבל כי מדינת ישראל תבוא עימו חשבון והטרור לא ינצח ולא יזיז אותנו ממקומנו, pic.twitter.com/VvIyAzZiQt— הרצל חג’אג’ (@herzelhajaj)
Homesh activists built those three structures overnight in the settlement that had been demolished by the IDF as part of the 2005 disengagement plan, along with the deportation of Gush Katif Jews from the Gaza Strip. In recent days, the settlers had bypassed the army forces that were stationed there after the murder and transferred construction material and equipment. Saturday night, the Border Police set up a checkpoint at the entrance to Homesh.
According to the IDF, soldiers confronted the settlers and tried to prevent the movement of people and construction materials to the site.
Then, Sunday morning, barely two days after Dimentman’s funeral, Border police and Special Police forces arrived at the scene, demolished the structures, and prevented yeshiva students from approaching the destroyed structures. Meanwhile, police and IDF units have encircled the Homesh settlement and new troops are being sent to the site, a sign that some believe foretells the security apparatus’s decision to get rid of the yeshiva and its students once and for all.
Homesh was not secured by an IDF force at the time of the terrorist attack. It is more than possible that the IDF is not inclined to assign permanent protection for the settlement which some on the left were reminding the media had been populated in violation of the 2005 Disengagement Act.
Religious Zionism Chairman MK Bezalel Smotrich issued a statement saying: “The lax left-wing government decided to reward terrorism and ordered the IDF and police to eliminate the yeshiva in Homesh in response to a terrorist attack in which Yehuda Dimentman H’yd was murdered. They don’t demolish the terrorists’ homes, but they are demolishing the yeshiva.”
“They will be met by thousands and tens of thousands of lovers of the land who are determined to fight this unfortunate decision and defeat them. We will all be there,” Smotrich said.