Taunted by ultra-nationalist youths, police detained young people and put them into vans in an attempt to evacuate them forcibly from an Israeli enclave in the heart of the flashpoint southern West Bank town.
Helmeted border police wearing bullet-proof vests and armed with truncheons gathered outside the Jewish enclave before sweeping through its narrow alleyways.
But the operation disintegrated into confusion when officers realised they had detained some young residents of the Jewish settlement rather than protestors from elsewhere who had descended on the enclave to stir up trouble.
The Israeli authorities have vowed zero tolerance towards Jewish families resisting eviction from a market in the flashpoint town, following weekend clashes between militant Jewish settlers and security forces.
Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who in Hebron faces one of his first major challenges since the incapacitation of Ariel Sharon following a massive stroke, said he had given "extremely firm orders against troublemakers".
"We will not allow a handful of outlaws, masked delinquents, impose their will on us. We will act very strongly to their opposition," Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz told public radio.
Settler deadline
Around 150 young people aged between 16 and 18 were believed to have remained in the town after the expiry of a deadline for them to leave.
But a settler leader maintained that non-residents left Hebron quietly following an army deadline for them to leave by 10:00 am (0800 GMT) on Tuesday.
"They will return at an opportune moment when we need them," said Noam Arnon, a spokesman for the Hebron setters.
The parts of Hebron under army control were declared a closed military zone in a bid to flush out hardliners who descended on the town to boost resistance to the threatened eviction of around 50 Jews squatting in the market.
Hundreds of police reinforcements have been drafted to the area and the ban on non-resident Israelis entering the centre will last until Sunday.
The authorities are determined to remove nine Jewish families, around 50 people, squatting illegally in a Palestinian fruit and vegetable market.
But hardliners vowed to push ahead with the resistance to any planned evictions from what they regard as a sacred part of the land of Israel.
Ultra-right-wing MP Benny Elon said he had come to "support the just fight of the Jews of Hebron".
Shlomo Yetkowitz, a man from Israel's business capital wore an orange T-shirt, the colour of opposition to last year's uprooting of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip, marked with the words "I am a settler of Tel Aviv".
"What is happening in Hebron can happen in Tel Aviv. The Arabs want to kick us out of the entire country," he said.
Opposition Labour party leader Amir Peretz blamed the government for failing to solve the wider problem of unauthorised Jewish outposts on occupied Palestinian land which he called a "stain on Israeli democracy".
In 2003, the Supreme Court backed an appeal by Palestinian traders, ordered the settlers to be evicted and the market reopened, but neither of the two court orders have yet been implemented.
The market was closed 12 years ago after Baruch Goldstein, an extremist settler, shot dead 29 Palestinians praying in Hebron's Cave of the Patriarchs, a shrine holy to both Jews and Muslims.
Under a 1997 accord with the Palestinian Authority, Israeli troops evacuated 80 percent of the city but continue to protect some 600 settlers living around the Cave of the Patriarchs.
Peace talks
Meanwhile Mr Olmert said he hoped to renew peace talks with the Palestinians after elections in March, but only if militant groups are disarmed first.
Mr Olmert's comments on peacemaking prospects were his most detailed since he took over from Ariel Sharon and echoed the position set out by Israel's incapacitated leader, who suffered a massive stroke on January 4.
Opinion polls put Mr Olmert, 60, well ahead to win the election on March 28 at the helm of the centrist Kadima party that Mr Sharon founded, just weeks before his stroke, to campaign on a platform of ending conflict with the Palestinians.
Mr Olmert said he hoped for talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after both Israel's election and a January 25 Palestinian ballot, in which Mr Abbas's party faces a challenge from Islamic militant group Hamas - sworn to destroying Israel.
"I hope that based on the results of their elections, and after that the results of our elections, I will be able to enter negotiations," Mr Olmert told reporters.
But Mr Olmert emphasised that any talks would depend on whether
Mr Abbas "will uphold his commitments to disarm the terror groups".
In a sign attitudes might one day shift, Israeli President Moshe
Katsav said talks with Hamas might one day be possible if it disarmed and abandoned its pledge to wipe the Jewish state off the map.
A Hamas spokesman said in response the group had no intent to disarm and was "committed to resistance against occupation".
Mr Sharon always ruled out talks on Palestinian statehood before disarmament, meant to begin under a US-backed peace road map.
Israel has not met its own commitment under the plan to freeze Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank.
"We want Mr Olmert or whoever becomes prime minister to implement Israeli obligations," said top Palestinian negotiator
Saeb Erekat.
"The Palestinian Authority is committed to implementing its obligations as well."
Mr Sharon's position was that Israel would one day have to give up some West Bank settlements following a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip last year, but he always insisted that the biggest settlement blocs would stay.