JERUSALEM, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- Several dozen Israeli settlers of a northern West Bank settlement scuffled with police and soldiers during an operation to raze several illegal structures overnight.
"Security forces evacuated three illegal buildings," an army source told Xinhua Thursday, in the early morning operation in hilltop Yitzhar's "Haseruga" outpost -- built six months ago without municipal approval.
"During this evacuation, an Israeli civilian was detained due to a violation of his restraining order," the source said.
The army said that following the evacuation, 20 Israeli civilians gathered there and hurled rocks at security forces. At the same time, in a different location in the community, 20 Israeli civilians gathered and rolled burning tires at the access road to the community.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) source said the army regarded the violence "with severity," but noted that the area was calm as of noon.
Locals, however, said "police acted in a brutal and vicious manner, tying up a security guard and confiscating his cellphone, so he could not alert residents to the raid," according to the pro- settler Israel National News news site.
The Israel Police Spokesman was unavailable for comment by press time.
A day earlier, Peace Now, a NGO which monitors the Jewish settlements in the West Bank, said two other settlements had been started in the West Bank - the first since 2005.
The first outpost, Nahlei Tal, is located northwest of Ramallah, while the second one, North Tzofim, is located in central Samaria region, near an existing settlement called Tzofim.
The Civil Administration said they were aware of the structures, and that demolition orders were being prepared.
Settlement outposts are those small-scale residential areas in the West Bank unauthorized by the Israeli government. However, the Palestinians and international community consider all settlements built in the West Bank and east Jerusalem to be illegal because they are built on territory Israel occupied during the 1967 Six Day War.
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