IDF and Border Police troops Monday evacuated two illegal settlement outposts erected by right-wing activists the day before in the West Bank, dismantling several makeshift buildings and scuffling with squatters who had hoped to establish communities there, a police spokesman said.
The two, Harhivi, near the settlement of Elon Moreh, and Kumi Ori, near Hashmonaim, were part of five outposts set up by activists over the current Sukkot holiday week.
By midday Monday, police had almost completed evacuating hundreds of settlers at four of the out points and planned to confront settlers at the fifth outpost later in the day, a police spokesman said.
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The other three are Givat Eitam near Efrat, Maalot Halhoul near Kiryat Arba, and Shvut Ami near Kedumim.
In Harhivi, the troops removed holy books from a shack that about 80 settlers had intended to turn into a synagogue before the forces took the structure and other huts apart at a hilltop outpost near the Alon Moreh settlement in the northern West Bank.
Settlers damaged army vehicles with stones and punctured one of the jeep's tires, Poleg said. No one was arrested in the scuffle, he said. One soldier was injured, Poleg said.
Settlers have set up more than 100 outposts around the West Bank in recent years to prevent Israel from transferring the land they view as God-given to the Palestinians. Israel has committed to the Americans to dismantle about two dozen of them.
The territory is the subject of recent talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders, who are working on a joint declaration on a vision for a final peace agreement which they hope to present at a U.S.-sponsored peace summit in November.
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