West Bank - Israeli security forces demolished a minor Jewish settlement outpost in the West Bank on Thursday, three days after President Barack Obama told visiting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he must halt the expansion of settlement activity there.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said troops and police evicted settlers who had been staying in seven metal huts, and removed the structures set up in the Maoz Esther outpost.
He said there was no violent resistance.
On Monday Obama told Netanyahu that progress must be made on settlements and that "settlements have to be stopped."
The US has long criticized settlements as obstacles to peace since they are built on captured land that the Palestinians claim for a future state.
The outposts, often little more than a water tower and a few mobile homes, are seen as seeds of additional settlements meant to cement Israel's control over disputed territory.
Some 280-thousands Israelis now live in West Bank settlements, including several thousand residents in outposts.
Israeli defence officials said that after returning from Washington on Wednesday, Netanyahu met Defence Minister Ehud Barak and they agreed to take down seven unproved outposts in the coming weeks.
Barak also met settler leaders and warned them that the unauthorized satellite settlements would be taken down, by force if necessary.
Local residents said 40 people had been living at the hilltop site northeast of Ramallah and they would start work immediately to replace the demolished buildings.
