ISRAELI police yesterday evacuated dozens of Jewish squatters who took over a Palestinian home in the West Bank city of Hebron, in an important first test for Israel’s new government and its plans to uproot tens of thousands of settlers.

The Israeli military has declared the Jewish section of the West Bank city of Hebron a closed zone, banning non-residents, after three days of riots by Israeli settlers and extremist backers against an order to evict Jewish squatters from the Arab market.

Jewish settlers in the West Bank pelted Israeli soldiers and police with rocks and eggs today, as the troops put up a wall to protect a Palestinian home from settler attack.