JERUSALEM 

The Israeli army said on Friday that it had evacuated some 200 soldiers from a military base in the occupied West Bank due to a fire breaking out nearby.

According to news website Israeli Ynet, the army evacuated the soldiers from a base near the southern Kfar Etzion settlement as a fire broke out in an open area near the base.

The army did not, however, give a cause for the fire.

The website added that 20 firefighting crews and six planes are working to bring the fire under control.

Kfar Etzion is an Israeli settlement built on Palestinian land in the southern occupied West Bank.

Under international law, all Jewish settlements in the occupied territories are considered illegal.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar