HEBRON, West Bank ? Rocks, firebombs and light bulbs filled with paint greeted Israeli police and soldiers sent to evict Jewish squatters from a Palestinian-owned building. It looked like a replay of Israel’s Gaza evacuation, and the result was the same, only quicker.

In a show of determination, Israel’s government won its first battle with hard-line settlers in the West Bank as police cleaned out the small pocket of resistance in Hebron in about two hours.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged more to come. Olmert said he would also take down wildcat outposts in the West Bank while he prepares to implement his plan to set Israel’s borders with the Palestinians by 2010. He envisions evacuating tens of thousands of settlers across the West Bank. Settlers pledge to resist, as they did in the Gaza Strip last summer – and as they did Sunday.

Nineteen officers and seven settlers were reported injured during a clash outside the three-story building in downtown Hebron as protesters tried to keep police from entering.

Then squatters threw balloons and light bulbs filled with paint from the roof. Settlers inside also threw stones, bottles and firebombs, police said.

Officers stormed inside after sawing through a barricaded metal door. Some in the crowd outside tried to force their way in, too, but officers pulled the struggling protesters away, sometimes slapping them to calm their thrashing.

Police appealed to the squatters – some with toddlers and babies – to leave peacefully, and some agreed. But others had to be dragged out, including one woman whose infant bawled as officers carried them out.

Three families and 27 young sympathizers were removed, police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said. Seventeen protesters were arrested.