Israeli troops force out 200 from camp

Soldiers fired tear gas and stun grenades at the protesters, who said troops had also used live ammunition, though no serious injuries were reported.

The al-Manatir site near Burin was the fourth protest village set up by Palestinians in recent weeks in a bid to reclaim land grabbed by hardline Israeli settlers.

The tents were set up on Burin village land but that has been inaccessible because of the Har Brakha settlement.

Shortly after the four large tents and five metal shacks were erected, several people from a nearby settlement attacked al-Manatir, after traditional stone huts used as shelter for watchmen on agricultural land.

Activists said after troops eventually held off the hardliners many of them left to attack homes in Burin.

Settlers also destroyed up to 100 olive trees - a key source of income for villagers - in retaliation.

Troops attacked villagers and international activists who had fled to Burin well into the night and a 29-day-old baby had to be taken to hospital for tear gas inhalation, said resident Munir Kadus.

The encampments are an imitation of settler tactics, where outposts are set up near existing settlements and are eventually absorbed into them, despite being considered illegal by the Israeli government.

The UN issued a scathing critique of Israel's continued settlement-building programme on Thursday.

The settlements lead "to a creeping annexation that prevents the establishment of a contiguous and viable Palestinian state and undermines the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination," said the first full-scale UN report into the policy.

n Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was formally asked to form the next government on Saturday, giving him six weeks to cobble together a coalition.

Mr Netanyahu appeared to reach out to second-place centrist party Yesh Atid, pledging to hold peace talks with Palestine, tackle high housing prices and end military draft exemptions for orthodox Jews.

But his Likud party and Yesh Atid will need another partner to hold a majority and are most likely opposed to those policies.