Israeli Forces Confront Jewish Settlers

Israeli security forces on Thursday began dragging Jewish settlers out of one of the most volatile flashpoints in the West Bank: a disputed house in the biblical town of Hebron.

Some 600 soldiers and policemen started to evict the settlers, who responded by throwing stones, eggs and cleaning fluid. TV images showed two young girls punching and hitting soldiers. Security forces in full riot gear used stun grenades and tear gas to repel the settlers.

"This is an act of scoundrels, Jews evicting Jews from their homes," settler leader Daniella Weiss to Israel's Channel 10 TV.

Israel's rescue service says eight people on both sides were hurt. One of the settlers sustained serious head wounds, and he was whisked into an ambulance on a stretcher.

The security forces took over the house by surprise in a five-minute operation. Then they began dragging out the 250 people inside one by one, their hands and legs held by teams of two or four officers.

Nearby, fist fights broke out between settler youths and Palestinians in the area.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said he ordered the army to evict the settlers after all attempts to persuade them to leave peacefully failed.

Barak met privately with the settlers prior to the military operation to try and convince them to go quietly, reported CBS News correspondent Robert Berger.

The army said its troops, along with police, carried out the evacuation and vowed to deal fiercely with resisters.

More than a dozen settler families took over the house in March 2007 and remained there despite a series of eviction orders.

About 600 of Israel's most extreme settlers have taken up residence in the center of Hebron, living in the midst of 170,000 Palestinians.

The settlers, fearful of a possible evacuation, have stepped up their violence in recent months.

Hebron is the traditional burial site of Abraham, the shared patriarch of both Jews and Muslims.

Settlers moved in to the house after claiming they bought it from a Palestinian. The Palestinian denies the claim and Israeli authorities have not recognized the sale as legal. Israel's Supreme Court ordered the house evacuated last month.

Settlers say about 20 families were living in the building, but the population appears to fluctuate between a few dozen and a few hundred, with any rumor of an impending eviction sending people rushing in from nearby settlements.

Two dozen people were injured Tuesday when settlers and Palestinians threw rocks at each other. After the settlers also threw stones at soldiers, the troops used stun grenades against the Israelis.

On Wednesday, Jewish youths clashed with riot police near the building, hurling paint-filled balloons, and unsuccessfully tried to break into another Hebron property claimed by settlers.

The attacks on security forces drew condemnations from Israel's leaders.

"We must be clear: If someone throws a stone at a soldier, it is as if he is throwing a stone at the state of Israel," President Shimon Peres said.