AS: At 1:30am Saturday, the middle of Shabbat night, IDF and police forces moved in to eject a group of youths from the Hagiborim (“the Heroes”) outpost, located on the path connecting Hevron and Kiryat Arba. For the most part, the evictees, leaders in the Land of Israel Loyalists youth movement, did not oppose the authorities out of respect for the Sabbath. Later that same night, however, some of the youth leaders returned to the outpost and spent the rest of the Sabbath there. According to reports of local residents, soldiers who came to carry out the expulsion ended up tearing apart the tents that were set up at the outpost and loading the evictees’ effects onto jeeps, which would constitute violations of Shabbat strictures officially observed by the Israeli army.

An IDF spokesman reacted to the charges that there was unnecessary Sabbath violation in the eviction by claiming that there was great danger for the youths in remaining unprotected at the Hagiborim site……..According to sources in Kiryat Arba, the local civilian security chief informed the army before Shabbat that youths intended to sleep at the Hagiborim outpost. Such an arrangement has apparently been the norm for the past three years. When the security chief was later ordered to attend to the eviction of the youths, he was told that “higher-ups in the brigade requested and said that they must be removed now.”

At least one youth was detained for questioning by police in the clash on Saturday.

Later, local leaders arrived on the scene to protest the needless violation of Shabbat. Among those who came were Rabbi Uzi Sharbaf, Kiryat Arba Mayor Tzvi Katzover, Rabbi Moshe Levinger, and others.

The Land of Israel Loyalists movement reacted to the eviction of its members in Hevron by calling on “all the religious Knesset members to immediately get involved in punishing those responsible for the despicable act and in calling for a no-confidence in this government. We demand immediate accountability from the defense minister and from the IDF chief of staff.”