Israeli police early Sunday started evicting Palestinian protesters from a hilltop camp they set up in a West Bank area slated for Jewish settlement, an AFP journalist on the scene reported.
"Israel forces have entered the camp," one of the protest organisers, Abir Copty confirmed to AFP.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday closed roads leading to the strategic site in preparation to evacuate those protesting plans to build a Jewish housing project.
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Palestinian activists erected tents in the area known as E-1 on Friday saying they wanted to "establish facts on the ground" to stop Israeli construction in the West Bank. The activists were borrowing a phrase and a tactic, usually associated with Jewish settlers, who believe establishing communities means the territory will remain Israeli.
Activists said they want to establish a village in the site, which they are calling Bab Al Shams.
The news came after Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian trying to sneak from another part of the occupied West Bank into the Jewish State to get to a job on Saturday night, Palestinian officials told AFP.
A Palestinian security official named the dead man as Odai Darwish, 21, from the village of Dura, and said he was shot crossing Israel's West Bank security barrier south of Hebron, as he tried to reach his work place.
The Israeli military confirmed that a border shooting took place but did not know the extent of the man's injuries.
"A Palestinian attempted to infiltrate Israel through the security fence," an army spokesman told AFP. "Soldiers at the scene fired toward his legs. The incident is under investigation."
A Palestinian medical official said he was contacted by Israeli authorities and asked to arrange for collection of the man's body from Soroka hospital, in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.
The hospital could not be reached for comment.
