Police are planning to evacuate by Wednesday morning the former West Bank settlement of Homesh, where several hundred right-wing protesters have set up camp in recent days in an attempt to reinhabit it.

Security forces estimate that some 200-500 protesters, mainly youths, plan to stay on the ruins of the former settlement overnight Tuesday. Israel Police and Border Police have assembled their forces to prepare for the evacuation.

Police expect protesters to attempt to prevent the evacuation, which is scheduled for early morning. The Israel Defense Forces will not deal directly with the evacuation, but will serve as a security circle from afar in order to block more protesters from arriving and to prevent any attempts to attack Palestinians.

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Clashes erupted on Tuesday evening between a group of Palestinian youth and right-wing activists holding a Brit Milah (circumcision) ceremony on the ruins of the former northern West Bank settlement.

The IDF on Tuesday allowed a family evacuated from Homesh during the 2005 disengagement to hold the Brit Milah ceremony on the ruins of the former community.

During the ceremony, a group of Palestinian children gathered in Kfar Burka, south of Homesh. Some 15-20 right-wing activists approached the group and threw rocks at them. Border Police troops at the scene broke up the clashes.

It was the first clash to have occurred on the settlement ruins since hundreds of activists arrived Monday in an attempt to reinhabit the former community.

The army had allowed three busloads of friends and relatives to enter the Homesh territory, illegal according to the Entrance into Israel Law, in order to attend the Brit Milah.

The IDF, which had initially rejected the request to hold the ceremony at the former settlement, then told the family that only one bus could attend. Finally, the army ceded to the family's demands and allowed three buses, though in the end only two buses arrived.

After small groups of protesters were evacuated on Tuesday, a group of devout activists still refused to leave, as former resident Limor Har Melech Son tried to pursuade the IDF to allow her celebrate her son's brit milah in Homesh.

The IDF initially turned down her request and refused to allow entry to the site after 12.00 P.M.

According protesters, the decision to revoke the IDF's refusal came directly from Defense Minister Amir Peretz. Peretz's office said, however, that none of its representatives had held any discussion with the protesters regarding a Brit Milah ceremony.

In response to the IDF's original refusal to allow the ceremony, Har Melech-Son threatened she would hold it at a checkpoint between Homesh and the settlement of Shavey Shomron. She negotiated with the IDF at the intercession of MK Uri Ariel (National Religious Party-National Union).

Activists block police from entering ruins
Dozens of right-wing activists on Tuesday noon burned tires and tried to prevent police from entering the former settlement. Other activists who opposed these activities removed the blocks and allowed traffic on the road to resume.

The activists' headquarters, Homesh First, said some 1,500 activists are at the site, but the IDF said there were several hundred settlers there, mostly teenagers.

Some 2,500 activists, most of them youths, arrived Monday at the site in an effort to repopulate the former West Bank enclave.

During tense encounters between security forces personnel and the activists earlier Tuesday the tires of three Border Police jeeps were slashed. Police said they do not know the identity of the perpetrators.

The IDF has not yet decided when it will remove the protesters from the settlement. Following an evaluation held Tuesday morning, the IDF said it might clear the area of protesters Tuesday afternoon, Israel Radio reported. The protesters may, however, be allowed to remain until Wednesday.

Olmert: Activists will not resettle Homesh
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed Monday that Israel would not let them to re-occupy the site.

"We have no intention of re-occupying settlements that were evacuated as part of the disengagement," he said, referring to the forced evacuation of all Gaza settlements and four in the northern West Bank, Homesh among them, in 2005.

"We are certainly committed to carry out the Israeli promise to dismantle the unauthorized outposts, so we are not now in the process of creating new unauthorized outposts, at a time when we want to dismantle the existing outposts."

According to Olmert, there was an understanding with the protesters that the event was to be "a visit, which will continue through the day, and end in the evening, when people will leave. I hope that this is what will be, and that there will be no need to use other means to cause the place to be evacuated."

But settler activists insisted that at least some of the protesters were coming to Homesh to stay.

"There is a nucleus of 30 families who intend to live there. All the others are [coming to] encourage, to help, to celebrate, and we hope that there will be more than 5,000," Boaz Haetzni, a main organizer of the march, told Army Radio on Monday.

The march was planned by several right-wing groups, most of which opposed the Yesha Council of Settlements during the disengagement. The Yesha Council itself is not participating in the event, although the march has the support of the Yesha Rabbinical Committee.