On the West Bank, a soldier was wounded and several settlers were arrested in the clashes at the tiny outpost Mitzpe Yizhar, which erupted amid tensions stemming from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to evacuate settlements in Gaza.
The arrested soldier, a resident of the settlement outpost, is from the unit that carried out the demolition -- but he was on leave at the time, the army said.
The soldier, in uniform and carrying his rifle, refused to leave one of the structures and called on his comrades to refuse to carry out their orders, the army said.
Mitzpe Yizhar is an unauthorized satellite of the government-approved Yizhar settlement, which has a population of about 300 ultranationalist residents.
Settler leaders warned that hundreds of soldiers could refuse to carry out orders to evict Gaza Strip settlers, a sign of the difficulties the army could face in enforcing a withdrawal.
Sharon's plan to pull out of Gaza and four West Bank settlements has drawn stiff opposition from hard-liners in his government and among Jewish settler groups.
At a meeting late Sunday, settler leaders told the army's top brass to prepare for the possibility of mass insubordination during the evacuation, adding that they were powerless to stop it.
"I have to be honest with the heads of the army about where the implementation of this draconian law will lead," settler leader Pinchas Wallerstein told Army Radio yesterday. "If there will be dozens, or hundreds, or thousands of insubordinates, it will take the state of Israel decades to rehabilitate its society."
Sharon pledged that soldiers who refuse to carry out orders will be harshly punished, saying, "The law will be upheld."
Abbas -- the front-runner in the presidential election this Sunday to replace Yasser Arafat -- campaigned in Gaza for a third day, telling supporters that thousands of refugees displaced after Israel's establishment should be allowed to return to their former homes.
