Israeli soldiers dismantled two illegal Jewish outposts in the West Bank and said more would be removed soon. No Jewish settlers were living in the outposts taken down in the West Bank, each consisting of several caravans.
Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer ordered the army to begin evacuating all outposts erected by Jewish settlers without government approval.
The Israeli media report that there are plans to evacuate up to 30 more such outposts.
There was no physical resistance to the clearing of the sites, but the move was condemned by Jewish settler leaders.
The Settlers Council said in a statement that the dismantling of the outposts amounted to a "reward for terror," as many were set up at the scene of Palestinian attacks on Jews.
About 200,000 Jews have settled in the West Bank, despite strong opposition from the two million Palestinians living there. The Palestinians claim the whole of the West Bank as a part of a future independent state.