Israel has started tearing down settler outposts in the West Bank as part of moves towards implementing a US-backed "road map" to peace and Palestinian statehood.
The move set Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on a confrontation path with Jewish settlers he had long championed, but the army's demolition of empty caravans on hilltops drew Palestinian derision.
"This is a theatrical and insignificant step," said Nabil Abu Rdainah, a top aide to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
The army said it removed "unauthorised structures" at ten outposts by early today, and Israel Radio said four other outposts, also uninhabited, would be removed later in the day.
Israel's Peace Now group put the number at outposts at about 60, half uninhabited. None of the outposts was authorised by the Israeli government and settler leaders said the Defence Ministry marked 15 for removal on a list it presented to them.
Before army demolition crews entered Neve Erez and Amona North, both near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas appealed at a news conference for militants to stop attacking Israelis.
But the Islamic group Hamas rebuffed Mr Abbas's call to end what it describes as resistance activities in a 32-month-old uprising for statehood but said it would consider renewing talks it had broken off with the reformist premier after the Aqaba summit.
Mr Benzi Lieberman, leader of the Yesha Council representing the 220,000 settlers in the West Bank and Gaza, said settlers would not fight the soldiers but would bring tens of thousands of protesters to rallies in settlements and Israeli cities.
Settlers also oppose the road map's call for a construction freeze at Israel's 145 government-authorised settlements in the West Bank and Gaza and creation by 2005 of what Mr Sharon pledged at the summit would be a viable Palestinian state.
The road map, the most far-ranging Middle East peace plan in more than two years, calls for an end to violence and reciprocal confidence-building steps including the removal of settler outposts set up since Mr Sharon took office in March 2001 and a freeze on construction inside established settlements.
But there has been no letup in Israeli-Palestinian violence since Mr Sharon, Mr Abbas and US President George W. Bush affirmed the road map at a summit in Aqaba, Jordan on June 4th.
Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip shot dead two Palestinian gunmen late yesterday after they tried to infiltrate the settlement of Netzarim, the army said.