Just hours after being evacuated by Israeli security forces, the West Bank outpost of Maoz Esther was being rebuilt on Thursday by Jewish settlers who returned to the site of their dismantled homes, local news service Ynet reported.

Dozens of youths working to rebuild the outpost said they would make sure Maoz Esther was expanded even further than it had originally been.

Member of the Knesset (parliament) Michael Ben Ari from the right-wing National Union party also arrived at the scene and nailed a mezuzah to the wooden structure being raised by the settlers.

"It is my duty as a legislator," Ben Ari was quoted as saying.

On Thursday morning, Israeli security forces evacuated Maoz Esther, hauling away seven metal containers converted to cabins.

Several young men were at the camp but there was no violence, local daily Ha'aretz reported, citing Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

The evacuation came one day after Israeli Defense Ministry sources said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak had agreed on a plan to evacuate illegal West Bank outposts.

According to the sources, Barak intends to dismantle a number of outposts out of the 26 illegal ones.

Some 100 outposts, set up independently by Jewish settlers without formal government approval, are scattered throughout the West Bank, said Ha'aretz, adding that these outposts exist next tothe 121 authorized West Bank settlements, which are legal under Israeli law.

On Wednesday, Barak said during a meeting in Tel Aviv with settler leaders that Israel will insist on the removal of illegal West Bank outposts even if physical force is required.

The 2003 road map agreement authored by the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators -- the United States, Europe, United Nations and Russia -- calls on Israel to dismantle all outposts erected since March 2001 and to freeze all construction in other settlements.

The Netanyahu government has said it will abide by the road map, but not move on to serious negotiations on a final peace deal until all of its preliminary clauses are met.

(Xinhua News Agency May 22, 2009)