JERUSALEM, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Wednesday dismissed a report run by a local newspaper that the army has set up a special command to handle upcoming demolitions of illegal settlement outposts in the West Bank.
Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported that the defense establishment is drafting a plan to simultaneously evacuate 23 outposts established after March 2001, which the Jewish state has repeatedly promised the United States to dismantle as a confidence-building move for the unwieldy peace process with the Palestinians.
Toward that end, the police has established a special command to prepare for such a scenario, revealed the newspaper, saying that as "all police operations in the West Bank are formally under the authority of the Israel Defense Forces," any IDF units that would participate in the evacuations "will presumably be attached to the command."
Since the government has not yet formally ordered the defense establishment to start preparations, the command "is not up and running officially," said the report. Yet it noted that two weeks ago the new command conducted its first exercise at an army base.
In response, "the IDF Spokesperson wishes to emphasize that reports that the IDF has set up a special headquarters to dismantle communities in the Judea and Samaria region are baseless," said the army in a statement, referring to the West Bank with its biblical name.
"It must be stressed that the IDF has not received a government order to dismantle the communities or to prepare for such deployment," added the IDF.
Settlement is one of the core issues impeding the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Settlement outposts are those small-scale residential areas in the West Bank unauthorized by the Israeli government and inhabited mostly by radical Jews.
Settlement and outpost evacuation is a sensitive issue among the Israeli public, and such moves often meet with violent resistance.
Ha'aretz reported that settlers have already set up their own "counter-command" to resist the anticipated evacuations.
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