Israeli police stormed a Palestinian house in the West Bank city of Hebron on Sunday to evict Jewish settlers accused of squatting there, in an early test for the new government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Police persuaded three settler families including women and children to leave, but had to drag or carry out two dozen teenage supporters who were holed up inside the house, near a heavily fortified Jewish settlement in the city.
Security forces had scuffled with scores of settlers outside after some threw Molotov cocktails from the roof of the three-storey building and others hurled rocks. Police arrested 19 settlers, while 17 policemen were lightly injured.
The house was not within the enclave of Hebron that Israel recognises as a Jewish settlement, and its evacuation offered a taste of what may happen if Olmert implements his plan to impose final borders for Israel by 2010.
In the absence of peace talks with the Palestinians, the plan calls for dozens of isolated Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank to be evacuated, while major blocks are retained and expanded behind a fortified border.
The settlers moved into the house last month, saying it had been bought from its Palestinian owners legally. Palestinian groups denied this, suspecting a gradual attempt to expand the settlement, despised as a symbol and reminder of occupation.
Israel's Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the settlers to be evicted pending a ruling on ownership.
Police said 41 settlers in total had been inside the house, refusing to leave. The police used an electric saw and a sledgehammer to break in.