Israeli Jewish settlers of a settlement in the occupied West Bank have agreed to a plan to relocate their hilltop outpost peacefully that could allow the government to avoid a potentially violent clash.
The 40 families living at Amona, northeast of Ramallah, face a high court order to leave the site by December 25 because it was found to have been built on private Palestinian land.
The approaching deadline led to efforts to resolve peacefully the situation, with the settlers refusing to leave and several hundred Jewish youths streaming into the outpost in recent days in support.
However, after hours of a debate on Sunday, outpost residents approved a revised government proposal to relocate by a vote of 45 for and 29 against, a spokesman wrote on the outpost's Twitter account.
"After 20 years of pioneering settlements against all odds, and after two long years, we have decided to suspend the struggle," Amona residents said in a statement.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister, had earlier pressured outpost residents to accept the deal, saying "we have done the maximum".
"Until dawn this morning we made very great efforts to reach an agreed solution on Amona," he said at the start of Sunday's cabinet meeting.
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