Israeli police arrested a dozen Jewish settlers on Monday and evicted hundreds of others carrying bricks they intended to use to start rebuilding an outpost Israel had evacuated in the occupied West Bank.
The protest, illustrating the opposition Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert faces over any withdrawals from occupied land, came as Tony Blair arrived on his first mission as envoy of the Quartet of Middle East peace brokers.
Television footage showed police dragging protesters from the site of Homesh, a settlement demolished in 2005 that has since become a rallying point for those who oppose further such concessions to Palestinian demands.
Homesh was one of four West Bank settlements evacuated at the same time as all 21 settlements were closed in the Gaza Strip. Some quarter of a million Jews still live in scores of settlements among 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank.
Hundreds of young settler men and women had forced their way past a number of Israeli roadblocks to reach Homesh. Police arrested a dozen people and another 300 were evicted from the site, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
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