Violence between Jewish settlers and soldiers erupted in a West Bank extremist stronghold as the evacuation of Gaza neared completion, with only one settlement left to be emptied and others already turned into piles of rubble by Israeli bulldozers.

ISRAELI bulldozers knocked down houses in four Gaza settlements yesterday, levelling once-thriving villages in hours as thousands of soldiers poured into four other communities in the final phase of removing holdout settlers from the coastal strip.

Residents of a small Jewish settlement said today they have reached a deal to move together to a village inside Israel – the first community to agree to be evacuated under the government’s Gaza withdrawal plan.