Israeli soldiers posted eviction orders yesterday at four unauthorised Jewish outposts in the West Bank slated for removal under a US-backed "road map" for peace.
Israel says the planned removal of four settlements built without government approval is in line with its commitment to the plan, but Palestinians dismiss it as a publicity stunt. Only one of the outposts in occupied territory is inhabited.
Eviction orders were taped on doors at the West Bank outpost of Ginot Arye, a cluster of a dozen caravans one kilometres from the red roofs of the established settlement of Ofra. One notice was wrapped on a playground climbing frame.
Settlers are outraged at Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, for long their champion, over plans to remove any of them.
Pinchas Yaamin, a religious student and part-time security guard with a pistol, thought it would not come to that.
"God gave us this land and we have no intention of leaving," he said at Ginot Arye. Tents stood by for volunteers to join a planned sit-in protest, but he said there would be no violence.
"We are not looking for a civil war," he told Reuters. The eviction notices gave settlers three days to file appeals with the courts.
The road map, stalled by violence, calls for Israel to dismantle all outposts built since March 2001 and freeze construction in 150 larger settlements on land seized in the 1967 Middle East war.
Mr Sharon has said that if the plan fails, Israel will take separation measures meaning Palestinians end up with less land for a state than they might through talks. The steps would also involve moving some settlers.
The Palestinians are meant to crack down on militant groups at the forefront of attacks on Israelis.
Underlining the near-daily violence, Palestinian witnesses said Israeli troops shot dead a man near a settlement in the Gaza Strip. Military sources said soldiers fired at a group "suspected of hostile activity".
Each side accuses the other of not doing enough to keep pledges and Palestinians also demand that Israel stop building an internationally-condemned barrier in the West Bank.
Israel says completed sections of the obstacle of razor wire and concrete are already stopping suicide bombers. Palestinians say the barrier annexes land occupied since the 1967 war and will deprive them of a viable, independent state.
Mr Sharon has vowed to speed up construction, but security sources said yesterday that Israel planned minor changes to the route which it thinks should make life easier for Palestinians.
"This change will not make life easier for Palestinians and this wall will destroy the peace process," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Reuters.
Palestinians also see the presence of the settlers as a big obstacle to creation of a contiguous state.
Interior Ministry figures released yesterday showed the number of settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip had risen by 16 percent to just over 236,000 since shortly before Sharon took office in early 2001.
A commercial on Israel Radio yesterday called on young couples to move to the occupied Jordan Valley, offering attractive financial incentives.