The newest illegal settlement in the West Bank was dismantled overnight on Wednesday, hours after hundreds of settlers had gathered to announce the land grab.
Settlers had arrived Wednesday afternoon at a patch of land east of Itamar, and named the outpost "Regev", according to reports in the Israeli press.
The newest illegal settlement, however, was dismantled by Israeli forces overnight, a spokesman for the country's Civil Administration told Ma'an.
The site chosen for the move was two-hundred meters away from the home of the Fogel family, five members of which were found murdered in their beds in March. Creating a new settlement on the site followed moves from the local settler community to create an outpost in honor of the slain, which included three children.
Built on what officials from the neighboring Palestinian village of Awarta said were privately owned Palestinian lands, the settlement was a move to take control of more lands in "Area C," which remains under total Israeli control, press reports said.
"Regev is not part of Itamar. It is outside of the fences ... overlooking the city of Shekhem [Nablus]... Idealistic people are joining us ... people with a strong feeling for the land of Israel," Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz quoted settlement leader Daniella Weiss as saying at the event opening the outpost.
Buses carrying the settlers to the celebration on Wednesday blocked off the road to the adjacent village of Awarta, where residents endured a month of house-to-house searches, overnight raids, massive sweeps of detentions, interrogations and forced DNA tests, carried out in the search for those behind the Fogel family murders.
Two Awarta teenagers were identified last week as having been charged with the murders. Families of both are contesting the charges.
At the new settlement, tents were erected and banners hoisted Wednesday, announcing its establishment.
According to Haaretz, "bored Border Police soldiers watched the proceedings," on Wednesday.
Under the Geneva Conventions, it is illegal to transfer populations to occupied areas.
According to a report from Israel's rights group Peace Now, 40 percent of the land on which Israeli settlements are built is privately owned by Palestinians. Much of the rest has been declared "state land," according to the report "often by controversial means and mostly for the benefit of the settlements."
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