<div style="text-align: justify; "><b><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Israelis started reviving a flashpoint outpost settlement in the occupied West Bank on Monday, AFP journalists said, constructing a building at the site which has drawn international attention.</span><br></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Using a truck, diggers and an earth roller, work got underway to erect a portable building at the northern West Bank site.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">AFP journalists saw Israeli soldiers guarding around 20 people carrying out construction work at the Homesh site, which Israel evacuated nearly two decades ago.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The latest development comes weeks after the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged his government had no plans to reconstruct the site, after a parliamentary vote on the matter sparked ire abroad.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was hailed as a "moving historic moment" by Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir -- an extreme-right settler.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lawmakers in March voted to annul part of a law which banned Israelis from living in areas of the West Bank which the state evacuated in 2005, the same year Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The government has no intention of establishing new communities in these areas," Netanyahu's office said in March.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Israel's military occupation of the West Bank has been in force since the 1967 Six-Day War.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Neither the army nor the defence ministry commented on their role in Monday's developments at Homesh when contacted by AFP.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The civilians at the site refused to discuss the matter when approached by AFP journalists.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The United States, Israel's top ally, said this month it was "deeply troubled by the Israeli government's order that allows its citizens to establish a permanent presence in the Homesh outpost".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Washington and the wider international community view Israeli settlements built in the Palestinian territories as illegal and a barrier to peace.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The European Union last week pressed Israel to "cease the policy of settlement expansion" and condemned increased settler violence against Palestinians. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>