Statements of condemnation by international and Western bodies and human rights organizations continue after the Israeli Supreme Court approved the expulsion of about 1,300 Palestinians from the Masafer Yatta area in the south of the occupied West Bank under the pretext of declaring it a "closed military zone".
The Israeli Supreme Court's decision on Wednesday came after a legal battle that lasted more than 20 years.
The area, which the occupation calls "Firing Zone 918", which covers an area of 3,300 hectares, is located near Hebron, where shepherds and farmers live in 8 Palestinian villages.
For her part, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in the Occupied Palestinian Territories Lynn Hastings said in a statement that the Israeli decision affects more than 1,000 Palestinians, including 500 children.
"With all local legal remedies having been exhausted, this community is now unprotected and at risk of imminent displacement," she added.
She stressed that any such evacuation may amount to forced displacement, in contravention of UN Security Council resolutions and international law.
In the same context, the European Union said in a statement issued by its office in Jerusalem, "Under international law, the individual and collective transfer and deportation of protected persons from the occupied territories is prohibited, regardless of the motive."
"The Israeli army has been trying to expel Palestinians from Masafer Yatta for at least 40 years, after classifying 7,400 acres of privately owned Palestinian agricultural land as a firing zone," he added.
The statement stated that residents of the area recently told the Norwegian Refugee Council that "the declaration of most of those lands as a closed military training area was just an Israeli pretext to seize their lands."
Supreme Court decision
On Thursday, the Norwegian Refugee Council - an international human rights organization operating in the West Bank - reported that the Israeli Supreme Court rejected all petitions against the "forced displacement" of hundreds of Palestinians from Masafer Yatta on Wednesday.
The occupation army declared the lands a "closed military zone" in the early 1980s, and the Israeli Supreme Court rejected the Palestinian residents' arguments that they lived there before.
For its part, the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem said that the court's decision serves the purpose of appropriating Palestinian land "to serve Jewish interests."
The organization considered that "the judges thus proved once again that those who suffer under occupation cannot expect justice from the court of the occupier."
She added that the international community should prevent Israel from expelling the residents from the area.
The Israel Civil Liberties Union also warned of "serious consequences" for the expulsion.
Thousands of Palestinians in the southern West Bank are at risk of being displaced from their lands, which the Israeli occupation army says are used as training grounds.
According to data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the occupation authorities have demolished or confiscated 217 Palestinian buildings in those areas since 2011, displacing 608 Palestinians.