Israel mobilises troops to oust settlers

ISRAEL is mobilising 4,000 police and soldiers to forcibly remove Jewish settlers from two unauthorised West Bank outposts, military officials said yesterday.

The move is a possible sign that acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert plans to deal more firmly with extremists than his predecessors.

Israeli police raided the militant Hamas group's campaign offices in east Jerusalem yesterday, less than a week before the January 25 Palestinian parliamentary elections. They confiscated material and shut down the office for 15 days.