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Israeli police clash with radical settlers in West Bank

Tel Aviv - Hundreds of Israeli settlers clashed with Israeli border police officers in the central West Bank settlement of Beit El early on Tuesday, witnesses said.

The clashes erupted as a large number of border police took control of two buildings being constructed without permits in the settlement north of Ramallah.

An Israeli military spokesperson in Tel Aviv said a decision was taken on Monday evening to station the policemen in Beit El ahead of the planned evacuation and demolition of the illegal buildings, known as Dreinhoff.

But hundreds of settlers holed themselves up inside and had to be forcibly removed by police.

Meanwhile, hundreds of settlers and supporters are also holed up in a former settlement in the northern West Bank, Sanur, which was uprooted and evacuated 10 years ago as part of Israel's 2005 disengagement plan.

Under that plan, then-premier Ariel Sharon unilaterally pulled all Israeli settlers and soldiers from the Gaza Strip, but he also uprooted four settlements in the northern West Bank - one of them was Sanur.

Among the hundreds occupying the abandoned structure on Tuesday were rabbis, a lawmaker of the pro-settler Jewish Home party and dozens of families who were forcibly moved from Sanur a decade ago.

Israeli security officials have given them an ultimatum to leave by 14:00.

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