Defiant Jewish settlers march to evacuated West Bank outpost

Thousands of Israelis led by at least seven Cabinet ministers marched Monday to an evacuated West Bank settlement, in a defiant signal that Israel’s most right-wing government in history is determined to accelerate settlement building on occupied lands despite international opposition.

The march also poses a new test for Israel’s security forces after days of unrest fueled by tensions over a contested Jerusalem holy site.

Israeli police and army forces were being deployed to the northern West Bank — the scene of frequent tensions in recent months — to secure the march, which comes after days of fighting in Jerusalem and along Israel’s northern and southern fronts.

The planned demonstration added to the already combustible atmosphere in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank that has accompanied the overlapping of major Jewish and Muslim holy days. Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have reached a fever pitch in recent weeks surrounding the Jerusalem shrine.

The march to Eviatar, an unauthorized settlement outpost in the northern West Bank that was evacuated by the Israeli government in 2021, was being led by hard-line ultranationalist Jewish settlers. Organizers are calling for the settlement's reestablishment and legalization.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads the most religious and ultranationalist government in Israel’s history. Several members of his Cabinet, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir — both West Bank settlers — and at least 20 members of Knesset were expected to take part in the march.

Visits to Eviatar were officially banned by the military since its evacuation, but that prohibition has been loosely enforced in recent months. Israeli army spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said the military approved Monday's march, saying it would be “highly monitored and highly protected.”

Ohad Tal, a lawmaker with the Religious Zionist party, said that “there was no reason in the world to cancel the march.”

“We need to send a message — the message that we don’t intend to concede and we are here to stay,” he told Army Radio.

Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have soared following last week's police raid on Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The hilltop shrine is the emotional ground zero of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For Jews, it is known as the Temple Mount, their faith's holiest site and the place where two temples stood in antiquity. For Muslims, it is known as the Noble Sanctuary, home of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam.

Dozens of Jewish visitors entered the site on Monday escorted by Israeli police for a second consecutive day. These tours by religious and nationalist Jews have increased in size and frequency in recent years, raising fears by Palestinians that Israel may partition the site. Israel insists it has no intention of changing the longstanding arrangement that permits Jewish visits, but not worship, at the Muslim-administered shrine.

Last week, Palestinians barricaded themselves inside Al-Aqsa with stones and firecrackers, demanding the right to pray there overnight, something Israel has in the past only allowed during the last 10 days of Ramadan. Police removed them by force, detaining hundreds and leaving dozens injured.

The violence at the shrine was followed by rocket fire by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip, southern Lebanon, and Syria starting Wednesday, and Israeli airstrikes targeting those areas. Recent days have also seen Palestinian attacks that killed two Israelis and an Italian tourist.

Palestinian attacks have killed at least 19 people in Israel since the start of the year, including one soldier. Over 90 Palestinians and have been killed by Israeli fire so far this year, at least half of them affiliated with militant groups, according to a tally by The Associated Press.

Israel captured the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war. It has built dozens of settlements in the territory that are now home to more than 500,000 Jewish settlers.

Most of the international community considers Israel’s West Bank settlements illegal and an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians. The Palestinians seek the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem for their future independent state.

Netanyahu's government has made settlement expansion a top priority.