Israeli forces begin evacuating 9 settler homes in West Bank

FILE -- In this Feb. 1, 2017 file photo, stones are placed on the road outside the West Bank outpost of Amona, overlooking the settlement of Ofra. On Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2017, Israeli forces started to evacuate nine homes in the West Bank settlement of Ofra following a Supreme Court decision that they were built on private Palestinian land. Military and police forces handed the evacuation orders and asked residents to cooperate peacefully. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner, File) (The Associated Press)

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Israeli policeman grabs a young settler from the West Bank settlement of Ofra, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2017. Israeli forces began evacuating nine homes in the settlement following a Supreme Court decision that ruled they were built on private Palestinian land. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty) (The Associated Press)

Israeli police forms a a line in the West Bank settlement of Ofra, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2017. Israeli forces began evacuating nine homes in the settlement following a Supreme Court decision that ruled they were built on private Palestinian land. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty) (The Associated Press)

OFRA, West Bank – Israeli forces have started to evacuate nine homes in the West Bank settlement of Ofra, following a Supreme Court decision that they were built on private Palestinian land.

Military and police forces handed the evacuation orders to settler leaders on Tuesday and asked the residents to cooperate peacefully.

Brig. Gen. Yoram Sofer pleaded with the settlers "to act according to moral standards, to assist us and not to use violence."

One of the residents defiantly tore up the order but no major disturbances have been reported.

Earlier this month, Israeli forces uprooted Amona, a nearby West Bank outpost, following a similar court order. The forces removed residents and hundreds of their supporters in sometimes violent clashes as they dismantled a community that had become a symbol of Jewish settler defiance.