In addition, a tent was removed from the Federman Farm in the city of Hebron. There were no reports of unusual incidents in this case as well. Several hours later, settlers began rebuilding the outpost on Hill 18.

"A guard who was on a lookout against Arabs saw the forces and woke us up," said outpost resident Tzur Natan Durani. "The forces arrived in the area, issued a closed military zone order, told us we had five minutes to collect our belongings, and began destroying the structure with hammers for about half an hour."

The settlers were unmoved by the evacuation, saying that the situation would be reversed in no time. "We'll return to Mitzpe Avihai today," a youth from Kiryat Arba promised.

Civil Administration representatives and police and army forces arrived at Mitzpe Avihai at around 3 am. The forces were dispatched to the area after receiving information that the settlers planned to start supplying electricity to the outpost.

When the forces arrived in the area there were six youths on the hill. The forces destroyed two huts in the area and confiscated equipment. They also removed a tent from the farm of extreme right-wing activist Noam Federman.

Federman told Ynet in response, "The actual prime minister is (Defense Minister) Ehud Barak, who has Bibi (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) and all the rightist ministers dancing to his policy. Every cabinet meeting they shout and protest, and Ehud Barak persists. In the following cabinet meeting they'll cry out again, and he'll destroy again. This is how the 'right-wing government' is managed."

He added that "they robbed the encampment without an order, but we will bring over another one and rebuilt it."

Knesset Member Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) harshly criticized the government as well. "Today it turns out that the Netanyahu government is more dangerous to the settlement than (Opposition Chairwoman) Tzipi Livni.

"Netanyahu and Barak continue to destroy the settlement enterprise, while blatantly disregarding the members of the Likud faction, the natural partners, the people of Israel who elected Bibi and (Foreign Minister Avigdor) Lieberman and received an uproot of outposts."

'False pretense of enforcing law'

The huts and tents destroyed are not included in the list of 26 illegal outposts slated to be evacuated. These outposts have been set up since March 2001, and Israel has promised to evacuate them.

Hundreds of settlers, comprised of families and single people, live in these places. Some of the outposts were built in response to the murder of an Israeli in the area. In the face of Netanyahu and Barak's declarations, the settlers vow to reinforce their presence in the existing outposts and set up new ones.

About a week ago, police and Civil Administration forces evacuated the outpost of Maoz Ester, removing seven tin huts and several teens residing in the area. According to the settlers, five families and several single people were living in the area. The evacuation took place without any violent incidents, but the outpost was rebuilt shortly afterwards.

Prime Minister Netanyahu hinted this week during a Likud faction meeting that there would be no escape from evacuating the outposts, as demanded by US President Barack Obama, in order to focus the attention on the Iranian threat.

"The list of priorities must be subjected to national needs," he said. "We must reach as wide as possible national unity in order to ward off the danger."

Religious Zionism's spiritual leadership is expected to convene Wednesday afternoon in order to discuss the outpost issue and make decisions. They will also discuss the matter of soldiers expected to take part in the evacuation.

Tuesday night saw an emergency meeting of settlers' committees, right-wing organizations and council heads in the settlement of Beit El. The parties decided to set up joint headquarters against Netanyahu's plan to destroy outposts and evacuate Jews from their homes, using "a false pretense of enforcing the law".