JERUSALEM, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Jewish
settlers set up 13 makeshift outposts in the West Bank on Tuesday, in a
campaign to show their strength after Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza
Strip, a spokeswoman said.
Israel is meant to remove dozens of
settler outposts in the occupied West Bank not formally authorised by the
government under a U.S.-backed plan for peace with the Palestinians, but
has failed to do so.
Datya Yitzhaki, a former Gaza settler and spokeswoman for the settler group called the Land of Israel Faithful, said hundreds of youths had begun building wooden and stone houses and pitched tents at sites close to a dozen older settlements.
"We intend to expand and build on these, we will build on what has been destroyed and show that settlement will resume," she said.
An Israeli military source said the army was treating it as a protest of tent encampments and that the settlers had said they would eventually leave.
Some of the settlers were among those evicted by Israel from the Gaza Strip before it withdrew from the coastal territory in September after 38 years of military rule.