MIDDLE EAST: The Israeli army yesterday dismantled three unpopulated illegal outposts set up by Jewish settlers in the heart of the West Bank.
The operation sparked criticism from Jewish settlers, who said it was politically motivated, and from Palestinians who accused Israel of trying to conceal the real nature of the army's actions in the Occupied Territories.
But the Defence Ministry, which ordered the evacuations, said more outposts, including populated ones, would soon be dismantled.
In the Gaza Strip, two Palestinians were killed and 17 wounded by Israeli army fire in clashes in the Rafah refugee camp.
Palestinian sources said the two - believed to be in their teens - were killed when soldiers fired from tank-mounted machine guns at stone throwers.
The army, however, insisted that troops patrolling the area returned fire after being attacked by militants.
Jewish settlers have established up to 100 outposts across the West Bank during the last four years in their campaign to torpedo any future land-for-peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinian people.
The outposts, often comprising little more than a few mobile homes and a water tower, are usually populated by a handful of young settlers.
They began to spring up in 1998 after the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, then serving as foreign minister, told settlers to grab as much land as possible before it was returned to the Palestinians.
The settlers yesterday accused Labour Party leader and Defence Minister, Mr Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, of ordering the evacuations in an attempt to boost his flagging support ahead of a November primary for the leadership of the centre-left party.
A settler leader, Mr Pinchas Wallerstein, said the defence minister was guilty of "a cynical exploitation" of the army "for the sake of a (political) campaign."
The Palestinians, who have watched settlements gobble up the land on which they hope one day to establish an independent state, dismissed the move as a smokescreen.
Mr Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a senior Palestinian official, said the removal of the outposts was meant to obfuscate Israeli "violations of international law and assaults against the Palestinian people".