Police issued eviction notices on Monday to residents of Yitzhar South, an isolated outpost in the West Bank. Police spokesman Moshe Pinche said that the orders were handed to the residents of nine structures in the outposts and were effective immediately.

He said he hoped the settlers would leave on their own accord and said there were no plans for a forced evacuation soon. The Israel Defense Forces refused to say how much time it would give settlers to leave before resorting to forcible evacuation.

Military sources said two weeks ago that Defense Minister Amir Peretz had no plans to evacuate entire illegal outposts in the near future. The sources said that as part of the first phase of evacuation, Peretz would most likely authorize the destruction of 86 illegal structures in the West Bank - 47 belonging to settlers, and 39 built by Palestinians.

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The Defense Ministry denied these estimations and said in response that the evacuation plan included entire outposts, and not just isolated structured. Peretz was to instruct the Israel Defense Forces to implement the plan as soon as the negotiation period was finished - which occurred last week.

Under the internationally backed "road map" peace plan, Israel pledged to
dismantle dozens of outposts. But neither Israel nor the Palestinians have met their obligations, and the 2003 peace plan remains frozen.

In Israel's few attempts to dismantle outposts, troops and police have clashed with settlers. In February, troops dismantled nine homes in a section of the Amona outpost that courts ruled was on private Palestinian land. About 200 people were injured in fighting between the settlers and troops.

Settlers began building outposts in the early 1990s, though Israel declared an official settlement freeze as part of the peace process with the Palestinians.

There are more than 100 outposts in the West Bank, ranging from small trailers placed on lone hilltops to full-fledged communities with water, electricity, roads and dozens of residents.

Palestinians and the international community view the outposts as the seeds of future settlements. The Palestinians claim all the West Bank as part of a future state and say the settlements are hindering them from realizing their drive for independence. More than 250,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements.