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Israeli government commits to removing illegal outposts

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Israel will evacuate dozens of settler homes illegally built on private Palestinian land in the West Bank, according to a government legal filing before the Supreme Court yesterday. The filing, in response to a five-year legal battle, commits the Israeli government to remove homes in six illegal outposts. The filing said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered the destruction of buildings on private Palestinian land, but had also called for outposts built on government land to be legalised.

Over 470 illegal structures were demolished in the past three years in West Bank Settlements. Although the commitment affects just 47 structures, some of them no more than caravans, anti-settlement activists said it could be a positive precedent.

In other news, yesterday several Palestinians and an Israeli were injured in a violent clash with settlers in the northern West Bank near the city of Nablus. The Palestinians claim that the incident began when settlers uprooted trees in the area, while the settlers claim that the Palestinians were first to use force. Army units who were called to the site to separate the two groups used tear gas, rubber bullets and some live ammunition when they came under attack. Violent incidents have increased since Israel’s police forces demolished several illegal buildings in an illegal outpost in the northern West Bank last month.