On the morning of Wednesday, 3 Menachem Av the IDF and Israeli Police forces destroyed several structures, including homes, in a hilltop community near Tapuach. Several wooden shacks were destroyed and a vehicle which was serving as a residence was impounded. The forces also destroyed a cinder block house in its final stages of construction.

The house was being constructed by the group of soldiers from Tapuach, two of whom are serving in Jenin, one of whom is in the IAF, another just completed four months of service in the Kfir Brigade, and the fifth is currently serving in Gaza and is not yet aware that his home has been destroyed, Honenu reports.

All of the five soldiers had to struggle, some of them for years, in order to be accepted into combat units. The IDF and the Jewish Department of the ISA (Israel Security Agency – Shin Bet) objected to their enlistment due to their ideological viewpoint and the criminal records which were opened against them at the time of the campaign against destroying Jewish communities and the Expulsion from Gush Katif.

The group planned to found at the site, called Mitzpei Nachshon, a hilltop community that would strengthen the Jewish communities in the area. Destroying the hilltop, at the time of combat in Gaza and when the founders of the hilltop are serving in combat units, hurt them immensely. One of the soldiers posted on his personal Facebook wall, “Thank you dear State for destroying our home at the time we were fighting for your existence.” Despite the damages worth tens of thousands of shekels the soldiers plan to continue developing the site.

During the destruction one of the residents of the hilltop community was detained and he will be brought on Thursday, 4 Menachem Av to the Jerusalem Magistrate Court for a deliberation after being interrogated on suspicion of assaulting a policeman. A Honenu attorney will represent him. Other residents report on violent conduct by border policemen and a young woman who required medical treatment for an injury to her arm.

Honenu responds: “It is unfortunate that particularly at a time of remarkable unity among the Nation of Israel, support for the soldiers fighting in the Gaza Strip and also the increase in Arab terror throughout Israel, that the army and the police chose to use valuable resources against Jewish residents of Yehuda and Shomron. The absurdity of the situation is even more pronounced when the homes destroyed are those of soldiers fighting for the security of Israel.

In the Eastern Gush Etzion area, MK (Bayit Yehudi) Moti Yogev called for an urgent session of the Knesset Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee to prevent the destruction of caravans set in place near Yishuv Tekoa in memory of the kedoshim HY”D, Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaar and Naftali Frenkel.

Chairman of the Knesset committee, MK Ze’ev Elkin called on Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon to intervene and stop the planned destruction at this time, while the nation is at war.

Elkin and Yogev expressed pain and outrage that the Defense Ministry allocates forces and busies itself with such actions at this time. Yogev called for checking into the priorities of IDF Central District Commander Major-General Nitzan Alon as well.

Photo: Destroyed house in Mitzpei Nachshon, Photo credit: Honenu

Video: Detention in Mitzpei Nachshon, Credit: Honenu

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)