A senior police source has told TPS that the IDF bears the responsibility for the fact that the evacuation, which should have taken no longer than a few hours, has dragged out to the point where the police had to continue  Operation Locked Garden throughout the night.

After a day marked by violent clashes between police and protesters, during which 16 police officers were injured and several activists arrested, the police were forced to suspend the  operation, to avoid nighttime operations. The operation will continue tomorrow.

“Our job is carry out the evacuation. The army’s job was to effectively cordon off the outpost, to ensure no outside activists could enter it”. “Unfortunately they failed to do this”.  “At 3:30 pm yesterday (Tuesday), when the army deployed forces around  Amona to block it off, only the residents and a few supporters were inside the outpost”. “By the time  our forces entered Amona this morning, there were over a thousand people inside, fully prepared for the violent resistance we encountered” . “Had the IDF effectively cordoned off the outpost, as they were supposed to, this could never have happened”. The fact that hundreds of people were able to easily infiltrate through the army lines into the outpost without being detected is a disgrace, and must be looked into”. “Had the army done its job, and prevented people from entering the outpost, we would have been able to complete our mission within a few hours, as planned”.

TPS reporters at Amona have verified this, describing the army’s blockade of the outpost as having “more holes than a slice of Swiss cheese”. TPS reporters saw with their own eyes how easily activists infiltrated the army’s lines and entered the outpost.

Despite several requests for comments, no response has been received from the IDF.