The Israel Defense Forces and police will invest only limited effort in preventing right-wing activists from marching Monday on the ruins of the former West Bank settlement Homesh, but warned that protesters would be evacuated by force if they tried to resettle the area.

Security forces estimate that they will be outnumbered by about three times the number of protesters expected to participate in the march on the former northern West Bank settlement, which was evacuated as part of the disengagement in 2005.

The IDF believes that at least 5,000 people will participate in the march, but only 1,000 policemen and Border Policemen and 500 IDF soldiers will try to block access to the site. With this ratio, the IDF knows the chances of completely blocking all the participants from reaching Homesh are slim.

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Senior officers in the IDF Central Command held talks throughout the day with the march's organizers, in an attempt to dissuade the participants from trying to bypass security forces by walking through Palestinian villages and thus taking an unnecessary risk.

Settlers planning to march said Sunday that they had reached a "security understanding" with officers during the meeting.

According to the organizers, the understanding with the security forces follows IDF warnings that if the roads to Homesh is blocked, the settlers would be forced to make detours through Arab villages, some of which are hostile. Fearing this scenario, said the organizers, the IDF decided to allow the protest march.

However, the IDF on Saturday warned settlers not to execute their plan, and notified them that the penalty for resettling an area evacuated in the disengagement is two years incarceration. The police also sent a warning letter to the organizers of the operation.

The IDF asked the organizers of the operation, called 'Homesh First' to promise not to stay in the former settlement permanently. Organizers have refused to make this commitment.

Military sources deny having reached an agreement with the organizers. The IDF said its primary goal is to avoid the resettlement of Homesh, and said an effort would be made to block the marchers' way before they reach the site. Nevertheless, the army is taking into account the possibility that a few activists will infiltrate the area.

The march to Homesh is being organized by a non-partisan right-wing organizations that opposed the Yesha Council policy during the disengagement. Although the council does not support the operation, the Yesha Rabbinical Committee does.

According to an operational pamphlet, participants are to reach pick-up points, from which they will be transported to the community Shavei Shomron. From there, participants plan to march to Homesh on foot. The organizers instructed the participants "to bring supplies for a 48-hour stay."

Organizers also instructed participants "not to confront the security forces that have been sent by the government, but to bypass them." However, they do add that "violent policemen are criminals and you are lawfully allowed to protect yourself against them."

It is the core group of Homesh settlers that are planning to re-establish the community. The core, which is made up of 30 families, arrived in Homesh a few years before the disengagement to bring religious reinforcement to the settlement.

In a separate announcement, the Homesh core stated that "for the last year and a half the Homesh exiles have been in caravans in Shavei Shomron, tortured by the fact that their destroyed settlement is only seven minutes away."

According to the Homesh core, "the injustice in the destruction of northern Samaria was even greater than the injustice of the destruction of the Gaza settlements. The destruction of Samaria makes no sense. It did not have a political or military purpose, and the defense minister's internal political considerations are the only reason the exiled settlers have not been allowed to return home."

Boaz Ha'etzni, one of the Homesh organizers, told Haaertz that the purpose of the operation is not merely the return to Homesh, but the revival of the struggle against the disengagement.

IDF, police say may not be able to block return to settlement
In recent days, security forces have been preparing for a predicted attempt on the part of settlers to reestablish the settlement of Homesh in the northern West Bank, which was evacuated as part of the Disengagement in August 2005.

IDF sources have stated that the army and the police will do everything possible to prevent the founding of an outpost on the ruins of Homesh, but have expressed doubt if it will possible to do so, as the ruins of Homesh are not fenced-off or closed.

The army on Saturday warned settlers intending to return to the Homesh area to abandon their plans to try to rebuild the settlement saying that the punishment under law for anyone who enters territories evacuated under the Gaza Disengagement and attempts to resettle the area is two years imprisonment.

"In view of media reports that Israeli citizens intend to enter the area of the evacuated settlement Homesh during the Passover holiday in order to reestablish the community," the warning said, "the IDF and the Israel Police wish to emphasize that the law enabling the disengagement bans Israeli citizens from entering and staying in the area without permission."

The army warned that "all means necessary to preserve law and order in the area" would be employed and that anyone violating the law is subject to consequences.

The police have also released a warning to organizers of the Homesh event saying that in addition to criminal charges, event organizers and participators could be subject to paying punitive damages to the state for costs accrued by security services as a result of the event.

Organizers of the event are hoping that thousands will participate in the campaign to reestablish Homesh, and have plastered flyers announcing the event in synagogues throughout the West Bank. The announcements detail staging areas where participants will gather and organize for the trip to Homesh, and instruct participants to bring supplies for a long stay.

"This event will require the presence of security forces who are busy implementing the lessons of the Second Lebanon War, and also places further burden on the security forces who are engaged in protecting the citizenry during the upcoming holidays," a police statement read.

In response, leaders of the Return to Homesh campaign announced they were not surprised by the threats.

"We have grown accustomed to the fact that the authorities in Israel are concerned with laws of expulsion and withdrawal. In all other matters of law there is anarchy, neglect and apathy. The big surprise today is the threat to sue us in civil court for the expenses that the state will incur for suppressing the return to Homesh," they said.

The fact that we could be made to pay security costs brings to mind a similar situation in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, where families had to pay for the ammunition used to kill their loved ones." Event leaders said they would be happy to pay the fines, as soon as all other citizens who are causing the police to spend a great deal of money, and used as examples Israel Islamic Movement head Ra'ad Salah, former justice minister Haim Ramon, President Moshe Katzav, and the Parinyan brothers.