Israel’s Netanyahu orders West Bank settler outposts to be removed, sources say

US URGES ISRAEL TO ACT AGAINST SETTLER VIOLENCE

Netanyahu had ordered the eviction of the unauthorised outposts in response to pressure from the United States, the country’s closest ally, the sources said.

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Saturday denounced violent settlers as terrorists and called for them to face severe consequences following a meeting with several Palestinian Americans in a West Bank Palestinian town.

Israeli website Ynet earlier reported the orders targeted around 100 outposts across the occupied territory.

The Israeli prime minister’s office and the military, who would normally take part in clearing any outposts in the West Bank, did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, asked at a conference in Jerusalem about the Ynet report, said Netanyahu has given “an instruction to evict places built in Areas A and B”, referring to parts of the West Bank in which most Palestinians live.

Under the Oslo Accords, interim peace agreements reached in the 1990s between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the West Bank was split into three zones: A, B and C.

Smotrich, a settler himself who has overseen settlement housing projects and formally recognised homes built illegally, said while he disagreed with Netanyahu’s decision, the government had made huge strides in advancing settlements in Area C.