Evacuating the occupied territories
TIME: The Best Photos of the Year 2005: Israeli soldiers - under orders to evacuate 25 Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories - struggle with a settler in Homesh in late August.
Evacuation of northern West Bank
23 Aug 2005
“The community of Homesh was home to 70 families prior to the disengagement. IDF and Israel Police forces arrived this morning at the community and started evacuating the civilians in the houses and buildings of the community. The security forces were faced with several incidents of resistance and barricaded protesters. Groups of civilians took control of houses which were vacated by families who had left the community, and barricaded themselves within the houses. In one of these instances, 80 girls barricaded themselves inside a house. Some of the girls evacuated willingly and the rest were evicted by the security forces. In another incident, approximately 20 girls tied themselves to one another and hurled bags of human waste, oil, vinegar and eggs at the policewomen who arrived to evacuate them. Security forces completed the evacuation today, in the late afternoon hours. In total, 709 civilians were evacuated by the security forces from the community. Presently, one civilian is left in the community. The civilian climbed up an electrical pole and refuses to climb down. Security forces are now negotiating with him and attempting to convince him to climb down and evacuate the community.”