Amona Live Updates: After Years of Delay, Israel Evacuates Illegal West Bank Outpost

A swastika with the caption "Israel Police" was spray-painted on the walls of the Amona synagogue. The anonymous vandals also spray-painted "Death to Zionists" and "Zionists Zionazis wait the day of Hell will come."

Speaking in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Ariel on Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he "shares the great pain of the families who were forced to leave their homes and abandon their life's work."

He committed that his government would establish a new settlement on state-owned land to replace the unauthorized Amona outpost. "We will work to have it happen as soon as possible," he said.

"I call on everyone to evacuate without violence," he added, saying that the evacuation is "no less painful for the soldiers and police involved in the operation." (Barak Ravid)

All of those who had been holed up in Amona's synagogue have been evicted by police. Forty-one officers were wounded during the evacuation, police said.

The rabbi of Amona, Yair Frank, was the last of those barricaded in the synagogue. The police permitted him to say a final prayer in the building before he was forced to depart.

"How can the State of Israel destroy a synagogue?" he asked. "The entire Jewish people should be crying on this day."

Adding that Israel is not a democratic country, he claimed that the people and the government wanted Amona to remain in place and that the evacuation was the work of "an elite that is cut off from the people who are causing the people to do unjust things."

Eight officers were wounding as the forces were breaching the synagogue, police said. One of the cops was said to have suffered a head wound.

Police and protesters are clashing at one of the entrances to the structure. Protesters are throwing rocks, iron bars, liquid at the officers, police said.

Police officers are now wearing helmets for the first time since the evacuation began on Tuesday.

Thirty-two police officers have been wounded so far during the evacuation.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan says the protesters who barricaded themselves inside Amona's synagogue are "hooligans" who "show contempt to Judaism and have no respect to religion." Erdan said he "expects the police to act decisively" to evacuate them from the building.

Israeli police have broken into the synagogue in the illegal West Bank outpost of Amona, where a number of protesters have barricaded themselves.

Smoke rose from the synagogue as police officers breached the barricades.

The action follows failed negotiations between the police and the protesters.

The synagogue is the last structure in the outpost to be evacuated.

After evicting the last home in the outpost, the police are trying to convince the youths barricaded inside the synagogue to leave without resorting to the use of force.

Most of the protesters who barricaded themselves inside the synagogue are not residents of Amona. The officers are wearing protective glasses after the settlers threw bleach at police.

Police have surrounded the synagogue, as another force started evacuating the last house in the illegal outpost.

Police said 24 officers were lightly wounded during the evacuation since Tuesday morning. 13 protesters were detained for assaulting police officers and disrupting the peace.

Police officers are preparing to evacuate the synagogue. Forces are surrounding the building as dozens of youths are barricaded inside.

Officials say that without a nod from the White House, Netanyahu wouldnt have dared to approve the recent wave of West Bank construction, or to commit to building a new settlement for the first time in about 25 years, before meeting U.S. President Donald Trump.

But if Netanyahu believes this will satisfy the settlers, hes in for a bitter disappointment. They are far beyond the stage of mere construction. They are demanding annexation and Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank, as Bennett said in the Knesset on Wednesday.

Read Yossi Verter's full analysis