Israeli security forces demolish structures in West Bank settlement

Israeli security forces demolished four illegal structures in a West Bank settlement overnight Sunday, a spokesperson from the Defense Ministry confirmed to Xinhua.

Security forces demolished four structures in an illegal Jewish outpost named Geulat Zion near the Shiloh settlement and Oz Zion outpost near the Beit El settlement, both in north of Ramallah. Structures have been demolished in these outposts several times in the past few months.

Settlers threw stones at security forces who razed the structures. No injuries were reported but one vehicle was damaged, and no arrests were made.

The Geulat Zion outpost is stated near the village of Duma, where overnight Thursday two right-wing Jewish extremists threw Molotov cocktails, setting fire to a house of a Palestinian family, killing an 18 month-old baby and critically injuring his parents and brother. Suspects have yet to be apprehended.

Last week, hundreds of settlers clashed with Israeli security forces as they carried out a court order to demolish buildings in the Beit El settlement known as the Dreinoff projects, built on private Palestinian land.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that 300 new housing units would be built in Beit El during the evacuation.

In addition, last week, Israeli security forces evacuated 200 settlers who reached a former illegal settlement site of Sa-Nur, evacuated in 2005 as part of the Disengagement Plan from Gaza and several settlements in the West Bank.

Israel occupied the West Bank lands in the 1967 Mideast War and controlled it ever since.

Settlements are built on lands Palestinian consider to be part of a future Palestinian state according to the two-state solution, and the international community deems the Jewish settlements as illegal, with several international initiatives underway to ban settlement products. Endit