LONDON: Israeli security forces on Monday arrested 18 settlers suspected of attacking troops and obstructing the evacuation and demolition of an unauthorized outpost in the occupied West Bank, the military said.

Dozens of Border Police officers and Civil Administration soldiers arrived at Givat Ora Yisrael, near the Palestinian town of Salfit, to demolish structures at the outpost, which authorities had previously cleared out, according to Israeli media.

Citing military sources, the Times of Israel reported that the structures were located in a closed military zone where Israeli civilians had repeatedly engaged in violent and illegal activity.

The settlers reportedly burned tires and blocked main roads to impede the military operation on Monday, disrupting traffic throughout the morning until security forces cleared the routes. During the confrontation, dozens of settlers physically and verbally attacked security personnel, the military said.

The 18 detainees were handed over to police for questioning on suspicion of assaulting and obstructing security personnel. Authorities also seized several vehicles, and incendiary materials, weapons used in assaults and pepper spray were found in one of them, the military said.

The incident was said to have occurred in Area B, a West Bank zone under Palestinian Authority civil administration where Israeli settlers are not permitted to establish outposts.

The unauthorized outpost reflected a broader pattern of expansion of settler activity beyond the Israeli-controlled Area C into Areas A and B, both of which are under Palestinian civil administration. Monitors and rights organizations have reported that more than 200 unauthorized settler outposts have been established in the West Bank since 2023, many of them in coordination with settlement municipal authorities, the military and other state agencies.

Outposts created without such official coordination have often faced demolition overseen by the Israeli Civil Administration, which operates in the West Bank under the Ministry of Defense, controlled by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a leading advocate of settlement expansion.

Some outpost residents have openly stated their goal was to drive Palestinians from their land in neighboring villages, including in locations beyond Area C.

Israeli advocacy organization Peace Now says there were 340 outposts and 146 officially recognized settlements in the West Bank as of September. Settlement-expansion efforts have prompted warnings from Western governments and rights organizations, including Amnesty International, which said on Sept. 6 that Israel was intensifying such activity through the confiscation of land, including orders to seize land in Area A. The seizures deepened Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise and further undermined the rights of Palestinians living under occupation, it added.

In July this year alone, the Israeli military signed at least 15 land-confiscation orders covering about 20 hectares in Areas A and C of the northern West Bank’s Jenin governorate. The apparent aim, Amnesty said, was to connect two planned Israeli settlements, Emek Dotan and Noa, which are among 34 approved by the Israeli government this year.

Settlement expansions continue despite UN Security Council Resolution 2334, adopted in 2016, which called on Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.”