Israel orders settlers to vacate Hebron home

The Israeli military on Monday told a group of Jewish settlers to urgently vacate a building in Hebron, setting up a fresh battle of wills over an attempt to extend an enclave built in occupied Palestinian land. About 20 settlers occupied the structure in the center of Hebron last Thursday, seeking to extend a settlement of about 500 families in the heart of the Palestinian city. A military official said the settlers were told their presence at the site "amounts to illegal trespassing, which endangers the stability of the security situation in the area" and that they had until 3 p.m. on Tuesday to leave the building. Israel's military authority said Israel had never authorized the settlement's expansion. Shlomo Levinger, a spokesman for the settlers, demanded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government "cancel this draconian order," maintaining the building had been legally purchased. Danny Dayan, head of the settlers' YESHA movement, denounced the order as a "travesty of justice". Pro-settler cabinet ministers and lawmakers also objected to the eviction, which raises tensions with settlers just a week after Israel's High Court angered them by setting an Aug. 1 deadline for evacuating an unauthorized outpost called Migron. All Jewish-only settlements on occupied Palestinian land are illegal under international law. About 500,000 Israelis and 2.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank including East Jerusalem.