Israeli forces have forcibly removed dozens of Jewish settlers from two houses in the West Bank town of Hebron.

They had been squatting illegally for months in the buildings, in Hebron's former wholesale market.

Police used heavy engineering equipment to help remove the settlers who barricaded themselves inside the buildings, welding the doors shut.

The Israeli army jailed 12 soldiers on Monday for up to four weeks for refusing to take part in the operation.

Hebron is the only place in the Israeli-occupied West Bank where a small community of Jewish settlers lives in the heart of a Palestinian city.

Around 200 Israeli police and border guards moved in on the buildings at dawn at the start of the operation.

"Police evacuated the two houses and the families that had been living [in the Hebron market] since September 2006, based on a court order issued this week," a police spokesman was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

"Five people were arrested."

Protesters pelted the security forces with rocks and eggs as they stormed the buildings.

The two settler families who took over the structures - and who were subsequently joined by supporters - said the buildings were once owned by Jewish families.

A spokesman for the settlers, Noam Arnon, told the BBC: "This is Jewish land.

"This land was given to us by the owners, the owners of this land, belonging to the ancient Jewish community of Hebron.

"They gave us permission, they gave us the deeds and the documents and they asked us to come here to renew the Jewish community and this is what we'll do in the future."

Flashpoint

Hebron is the scene of frequent clashes between Jewish settlers and Palestinians.

The wholesale market was closed in 1994 when Jewish militant Baruch Goldstein opened fire in a shrine holy to both Jews and Muslims, killing 29 Palestinians.

Under an agreement with the Palestinian Authority, Israel evacuated 80% of Hebron in 1997, remaining in an area around the Old City where 650 Jewish settlers live among about 30,000 Palestinians.

All Israeli settlements built on land captured in the 1967 war are illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.

PHOTO CAPTION

Israeli soldiers forcibly remove a young Jewish settler from a building in Hebron