Israeli forces prepare for West Bank standoff

SANUR, West Bank: Israeli forces massed on Tuesday outside a
West Bank settlement where ultra nationalist Jews dug in for a last stand against evacuation after failing to thwart a pullout from occupied Gaza.

Security officials feared violence by hundreds of young radicals, armed with iron rods and shields, who have barricaded themselves in a stone citadel and a nearby synagogue in Sanur, one of two neighboring enclaves to be uprooted.
As military vehicles approached, headlights beaming through the predawn darkness, youths hammered more barricades into place, using old furniture, car parts and other materials. They spilled oil on the road leading in from the front gate.