Israel set to remove outposts as part of peace plan

ISRAEL’S Cabinet yesterday adopted a report on the state’s complicity in setting up 105 illegal West Bank settlement outposts and decided to dismantle 24 of them.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told Cabinet ministers he was committed to removing outposts as part of an internationally-backed peace plan, but it remained unclear if more outposts would be removed and how soon.

The United States and the Palestinians have demanded the outposts, seen as seeds of larger settlements, be dismantled immediately.