TEL AVIV, Sept 6 - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered unauthorized settler outposts in the West Bank to be dismantled, two people familiar with the matter said on Sunday, amid pressure from the U.S. to crack down on settler attacks on Palestinians.

The order applies to outposts established by settlers without official authorisation from the Israeli state, the sources said. Outposts typically consist of prefabricated caravans and house a small number of settlers. The state has from time to time demolished such structures and also formally recognized others, allowing them to access government funding.

It was not immediately clear when the operation would begin.

U.N. bodies and most governments deem all Israeli settlements illegal under international law and consider the West Bank to be occupied territory under military control. Israel argues the territory is disputed, not occupied.

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Netanyahu had ordered the eviction of the unauthorized outposts in response to pressure from the United States, the country's closest ally, the sources said.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Saturday denounced violent settlers as terrorists and called for them to face severe consequences following a meeting with several Palestinian Americans in a West Bank Palestinian town.

Israeli website Ynet earlier reported the orders targeted around 100 outposts across the occupied territory.

The Israeli prime minister's office and the military, who would normally take part in clearing any outposts in the West Bank, did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, asked at a conference in Jerusalem about the Ynet report, said Netanyahu has given "an instruction to evict places built in Areas A and B", referring to parts of the West Bank in which most Palestinians live.

Under the Oslo Accords, interim peace agreements reached in the 1990s between Israel and t...