Israeli authorities demolished on Wednesday an illegal settlement outpost adjacent to a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank, officials said.

Calls to Israel’s Civil Administration were not immediately returned, but onlookers said bulldozers dismantled the “Yesh Dam” outpost near Qusra, a Palestinian village south of Nablus.

Two busloads of soldiers were seen deployed in the village late Tuesday ahead of the demolition which removed a cement structure, agriculture buildings, and tents.

Israeli officials said forces blocked a main road around Nablus, including one leading to the illegal Yitzar settlement, to protect Palestinians from retaliatory settler violence.

Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian Authority official who monitors settlements in the northern West Bank, was satisfied with Israel’s decision. “This outpost was the launch point of many attacks against Palestinian property in Nablus, the latest of which was the uprooting of trees in Qusra.”

Abed An-Nasser Qaryuti, mayor of the nearby Qaryut village, told Ma’an that settlers threw stones at the entrance of his village, apparently in response to the demolition.

“Hundreds have gathered since early this morning,” he said.