1. The residents of Masafer Yatta are among the most vulnerable in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) and are dependent on humanitarian aid, due to a restrictive and discriminatory planning regime. The Israeli authorities have issued demolition or ‘stop work’ orders against most of the homes, animal shelters, cisterns, and community infrastructure on the grounds that they were built without building permits, which are almost impossible to obtain, impeding the development of adequate housing, infrastructure, and livelihoods.
2. Communities in the entire area live in a constant state of fear. In addition to the threat of their homes being demolished, communities also face violence from settlers residing in a nearby outpost, who have blocked roads in the area, attacked herders, and set haystacks and grazing areas on fire, undermining their physical security, negatively affecting mental and psycho-social health, lowering their standard of living, and increasing the dependence on humanitarian aid. Herding activities are the main source of income for the community, but access to grazing lands has been reduced due to military and settlement activity. This has increased the dependence on fodder, the price of which has increased exponentially during the war in Ukraine.
3. Humanitarian organizations and donors have been providing assistance to the communities in Masafer Yatta to meet their basic needs, including water and electricity, and prevent their forcible transfer. However, the Israeli authorities are impeding such efforts by the issuance of demolition or ‘stop work’ orders, by confiscation of vehicles and equipment, and by restrictions on physical access to land and of humanitarian workers to the area. The four schools in the area, all of which were established with support from international donors, have pending demolition orders, as do the four clinics which are serviced by mobile health teams. Evictions would result in a multitude of humanitarian needs that would have to be addressed to ensure people’s protection and access to essential services.
4. The forcible transfer of civilians from, or within, the oPt is absolutely prohibited under international humanitarian Law. Israeli authorities should halt all coercive measures including planned evictions, demolitions, and  military training in residential areas.

Table 1: Number of people and structures at risk of forcible transfer and demolition in Masafer Yatta

Source: Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) oPt

International law and the case of Masafer Yatta

• Forced Evictions resulting from demolitions are a gross violation of human rights including the right to adequate housing, water, sanitation, health, education, and privacy.[5]
• If followed through, forced evictions resulting in displacement could amount to forcible transfer, which is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention and thus a war crime.[6] Any evictions carried out in this context would moreover raise concern of arbitrary displacement prohibited by the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.[7]
• Regarding forcible transfer, the term ‘forcible’ “is not restricted to physical force, but may include threat of force or coercion, such as that caused by fear of violence, duress, detention, psychological oppression or abuse of power, against such person or persons or another person, or by taking advantage of a coercive environment.”  This has also been incorporated in the International Criminal Court (ICC) Elements of Crimes relating to the definition of displacement and forcible transfer.
• Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention allows for the temporary evacuation of protected persons for their own security or for an imperative military reason. However, Israeli firing zones serve the primary purpose of military training and, in the absence of active hostilities in the occupied West Bank, this does not meet the threshold of imperative military reasons or absolute necessity for military operations that may justify any evacuation of the population or seizure or destruction of private property.[8] In any event, any permissible evacuations can only be temporary: According to article 49 the Persons evacuated “shall be transferred back to their homes as soon as hostilities in the area in question have ceased.”
• Forcible transfer is also similarly prohibited by customary international law. According to Rule 129 of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Customary International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Study: “Parties to an international armed conflict may not deport or forcibly transfer the civilian population of an occupied territory, in whole or in part, unless the security of the civilians involved or imperative military reasons so demand.”
• The continued evictions of Palestinians and settlement expansion during fifty-five years of occupation alters the reality on the ground, contrary to international humanitarian law and the legally binding resolutions of the United Nations Security Council. The High Court’s 4 May ruling on Masafer Yatta appears to be part of a wider policy of Israel in the territory it occupies to use closed military areas, leading to confiscation and demolitions of Palestinian lands and homes, in some cases to allow for the establishment and expansion of settlements. Documented cases of transfers of land from firing zones to settlements exacerbate these concerns.[9]
• Israeli regulations, policies and practices affecting Palestinians in Israeli declared firing zones or their vicinity exacerbate the coercive environment[10] that places these communities under an extreme pressure to move, raising an imminent risk of forcible transfer.
• Closed military zones further limit Palestinian privately owned pastureland and impose severe restrictions on Palestinian movement and livelihood, raising concerns of violations of human rights.[11]

[1] A/HRC/24/30, para.28.

[2] Document exposed by Akevot: Ariel Sharon instructed IDF to create training zone to displace Palestinians | Akevot and Haaretz, 9 August 2020.

[3] Report of the Secretary General on Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan (A/76/336), 23 September 2021, para 50-5.

[4] https://www.ochaopt.org/content/statement-united-nations-resident-and-humanitarian-coordinator-occupied-palestinian-territo-ry-lynn-hastings.

[5] Language from the UN Secretary General report on settlements, A/72/564, Para 49. See International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Articles 11, 12 and 13 and General comment No. 7: The right to adequate housing (art. 11 (1) of the Covenant): Forced evictions.

[6] Language from the latest UN Secretary General report on settlements, see A/76/336, para 39 and para 57. See Fourth Geneva Convention, arts. 49 (1) and 147; and Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, art. 8 (2) (b) (viii).

[7] Guiding principle 6b. The Guidelines further state that “States are under a particular obligation to protect against the displace-ment of indigenous peoples, minorities, peasants, pastoralists, and other groups with a special dependency on and attachment to their lands (guiding principle 9).

[8] Language from the latest UN Secretary General report on settlements, see A/76/336, para 55.

[9] A/73/410, para.28.

[10] A/HRC/24/30, paras.28 and 29.

[11] International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 12; International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, art.11.