HEBRON, West Bank (AP): Israel's outgoing prime minister on Sunday called for a crackdown on extremist Jewish settlers who attacked and threatened Israeli troops and vandalized Palestinian property.

The settler rampage on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Hebron came after Israeli forces demolished an illegal settlement outpost that had been set up by a well-known ultranationalist extremist, Noam Federman.

Police said four settlers were arrested, including one suspected of injuring a policeman and two for trying to set police cars on fire.

Settlers also vandalized a nearby Muslim cemetery and slashed the tires of two dozen Arab-owned cars, the Israeli military said.

Israeli human rights groups and senior military officials have expressed concern about growing violence by the most militant among the about 300,000 West Bank settlers in recent months.

The Israeli army commander in the West Bank, Maj. Gen. Gadi Shamni, warned in a newspaper interview earlier this month that the number of settlers engaged in violence has ``grown into the hundreds.''

Critics have long complained that settler vigilantes are allowed to act with impunity and that the security forces often look the other way, particularly when it comes to settler violence against Palestinians.

Also, Israeli authorities have made little effort to dismantle some 100 settlement outposts set up in recent years without formal government approval. As part of its peace talks with the Palestinians, Israel has pledged to take down dozens of outposts.

Sunday's violence drew a strong response from Israeli leaders, in part because of comments by several residents from the large settlement of Kiryat Arba, next to Hebron.

In remarks broadcast on Israel Army Radio, one Kiryat Arba man called for revenge attacks against soldiers. Another said that the soldiers' fate should be like that of Gilad Schalit, the Israeli soldier held captive for more than two years by Palestinian militants in Gaza.

The remarks violated an Israeli taboo against attacking the troops, whether verbally or physically.

Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his Cabinet during its weekly session that such violence would no longer be tolerated.

``Anyone who said such things against Israeli soldiers, his place is in prison and (the target of) legal proceedings,'' he said. ``We will not show any tolerance concerning such comments, and concerning such actions.''

He instructed the ministers of justice and internal security to look into the case, and said he would be briefed in greater detail.

``Anyone who said such things against Israeli soldiers, his place is in prison and (the target of) legal proceedings,'' he said. ``We will not show any tolerance concerning such comments, and concerning such actions.''

Sunday's clash also highlighted the difficulties Israel would face if it were ever to decide to dismantle scores of West Bank settlements as part of a peace deal with the Palestinians.

Ever since Israel dismantled its settlements in Gaza in 2005 as part of a pullout from the territory, hardline settlers in the West Bank have become more determined to resist being removed from their homes.

Still, even these ideological settlers, who believe that God promised the West Bank to the Jews, are divided over the use of violence, particularly against Israeli soldiers. On Sunday, several settler leaders distanced themselves from the extremists in Kiryat Arba.