The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers and border police evacuated forcibly the settlers in the illegal outpost of Yad Yair in the West Bank Thursday, prompting settlers protests throughout the area, the IDF said.
In a statement released by IDF Central Command, it claims that they evacuated the illegal outpost of "Yad Yair," northwest of the West Bank city of Ramallah, for the enforcement of law and order in the Judea and Samaria region.
The evacuation prompted some settlers to "riot" in the area, the statement said. The settlers torched fields belonging to Palestinian villagers and punctured the tires of IDF vehicles in response to the forced evacuation.
The army then declared Yad Yair a closed military zone, announcing that it would arrest anyone who came near the site.
About 200 trees were set on fire in the village of Madmaeh in the northern West Bank, near the Israeli settlement of Yitzhar.
The IDF denied the settlers' claims that the forced evacuation of the outpost violated a prior agreement with the army. The settlers said that according to the agreement with the commander of the local IDF division, the evacuation was to be carried out peacefully.
Micky Rosenberg, the spokesperson for police, told Xinhua that two Israelis from Yitzhar were arrested because they set fire to the village of Madmaeh.
But the spokesperson insisted that police just dismantled some illegal buildings instead of evacuating the settlers.
Earlier this week, a large number of IDF soldiers were sent to Yad Yair to enact the forced evacuation, but they backed off of the planned evacuation after hundreds of settlers gathered at the site before dawn on Wednesday.
Israel captured territories in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Six Day war. From then on, settlement issue has been highly concerned between the two neighbors.
Under the U.S.-mediated "Road Map" peace plan, which serves as the basis of the peace talks, Israel promised to halt all settlement constructions. But Israel has continued expanding the areas which it vows to retain under any final peace deal.
On Aug. 12, Olmert proposed a plan to the Palestinian National Authority, stating that Israel would withdraw from 93 percent of the West Bank, which means about 70,000 Israeli settlers in 74 settlements have to leave their current homes.
However, Palestinian chief negotiator Ahmed Qurei ruled out the feasibility of the plan, saying a two-state solution could be achieved only if Israel met the Palestinian demand to withdraw from all Palestinian territories in accordance with the 1967 border.
Source:Xinhua
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