Majdi Mohammed / AP

Surrounded by Israeli border police, Jewish settlers from the Esh Kodesh settlement outpost sit in a field in an attempt to prevent Palestinians from farming land in the northern West Bank, on Jan. 2. Both the settlers and Palestinians living in the area claim ownership of the disputed land.

Reports state that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas insists that talks cannot proceed without a construction freeze on Israeli West Bank settlements, a precondition that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects.

-- The Associated Press, European Pressphoto Agency

Alaa Badarneh / EPA

An Israeli soldier runs to stop a Jewish settler as she tries to prevent a Palestinian farmer from ploughing his fields near the West Bank village of Jaloud on Jan. 2.

Alaa Badarneh / EPA

Israeli soldiers prepare to remove a Jewish settler as she tries to stop a Palestinian farmer from ploughing his fields near the West Bank village of Jaloud near Nablus on Jan. 2.

Previously on PhotoBlog:

• Palestinians rally, celebrate as UN upgrades their status
• Palestinians clash with Israeli soldiers over prisoners
• Israel authorizes additional permits for Palestinian workers
• West Bank cities erupt in violent protests over escalating prices
• Jewish settlers voluntarily evacuate West Bank enclave

Menahem Kahana / AFP - Getty Images

An Israeli settler holds her baby near the unauthorized outpost of Mitzpe Avichai near the Kiryat Arba settlement in the West Bank city of Hebron after the outpost was destroyed by the Israeli army on Jan. 12, 2012. Israeli troops demolished an unauthorized settler outpost made up of 10 wooden huts in the southern West Bank, police and the military said.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that the Mitzpe Avichai outpost was illegally established in 2007 and had expanded in the past year to house nine families. It is the third such outpost to be demolished in the last week.

See more images from the West Bank on PhotoBlog.

Menahem Kahana / AFP - Getty Images

Israeli border policemen evacuate settlers after their wooden houses at the unauthorised outpost of Mitzpe Avichai were destroyed by the Israeli army on Jan. 12, 2012.

Abir Sultan / EPA

Jewish settlers look for their belongings after Israeli security forces demolished two structures in the unauthorized Jewish settlement outpost of Mitzpe Yitzhar, in the West Bank, early on Dec. 15, 2011.

Abir Sultan / EPA

Jewish settlers look for their belongings after Israeli security forces demolished two structures in the unauthorized Jewish settlement outpost of Mitzpe Yitzhar, in the West Bank, early on Dec. 15, 2011.

Reuters reports:

Israeli forces tore down structures in a settler-outpost built without government approval in the West Bank on Thursday.

Hours later, a mosque in the village of Burqa was defaced with Hebrew graffiti that said "war" and "Mitzpe Yitzhar," the name of the outpost where the demolitions had taken place. Suspicion immediately fell on Jewish extremists.

Attempts to demolish unauthorized outposts have been resisted by radicals who scuffle with troops or carry out night-time sabotage to inflict what they call the "price tag" for "selling out" the settlements.

Although Israel continues to expand larger official settlements, it has been evacuating smaller, unauthorized outposts, in line with court orders to move against them.

Read more about the incidents in our story: Jewish settlers eyed after another mosque burns.