Illegal settlers on West Bank leaving homes: Israeli army

Supreme Court had asked people to leave by Tuesday

Jewish settlers began leaving the unauthorised outpost of Migron in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, the military said, obeying an Israeli Supreme Court order to vacate their homes by Tuesday.

A number of families began moving out of their homes in the hilltop settlement of about 50 families in an orderly fashion, a spokeswoman said, although a few said they would remain and would not go voluntarily, an Israel Radio report added. A police spokesman said officers had started handing eviction orders to the families before dawn. The court had delayed several deadlines set for evacuating the settlement in the past year after last-minute appeals. Israeli authorities had voiced concern that settlers could respond violently to any evacuation orders but there was no sign of violent protest on Sunday.

The court last week rejected an appeal by the settlers to delay the evacuation, which a separate ruling a year ago decided was built on privately owned Palestinian land. Migron is one of dozens of hilltop outposts built more than a decade ago without Israeli government authorisation on land captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War but which Palestinians claim for a hoped-for independent state.

Settlers had sought a delay in moving out, saying temporary homes for them elsewhere in the West Bank were not ready. Others maintained they had purchased the land in question.

In numerous instances, settlers have defied government orders and rebuilt unauthorised outposts that had been removed. Jewish settlements built on territory Israel captured in a 1967 war is one of the main obstacles to a resumption of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks stalled since late 2010.