United Nations rapporteurs have called on Israel to stop "harassing" aid workers and human rights defenders in the Masafer Yatta area of ​​the occupied West Bank, where the Israeli army is conducting training.

"The arrogance of the Israeli authorities knows no bounds," the four rapporteurs said in a statement. "It harasss human rights defenders and aid workers who seek to support and protect those facing grave human rights violations in Masafer Yatta."

Last May, the Israeli Supreme Court upheld the army's position, considering that the Masafer Yatta area - which includes 12 Palestinian villages at the southern edge of the West Bank - has been a training area since 1980, and this decision paves the way for the possibility of expelling its residents and building new settlements.

“The tragic repercussions of this decision are now before our eyes, as the approximately 1,200 Palestinian residents of Masafer Yatta have been left unprotected in the face of the threat of forced eviction and arbitrary displacement,” said the rapporteurs mandated by the UN Human Rights Council but not speaking on its behalf.

Masafer Yatta is located in “Area C” under Israeli military and civilian control under the 1993 Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Accords, which divided the occupied West Bank by Israel into 3 areas “A”, “B” and “C”.

The four rapporteurs expressed their "dissatisfaction with the reports that human rights defenders and humanitarian workers were harassed by the Israeli army in Masafer Yatta."

According to these experts, they were arrested and held for several hours at checkpoints, and their personal documents or cars were confiscated, under the pretext of entering a military site without a permit.

They expressed particular concern about Sami Al-Harini, a prominent human rights defender and member of the "Sumoud Youth" movement, which experts consider an "active group engaged in a peaceful resistance against the illegal settlements on the hills in southern Hebron".

On June 28, 2022, it was reported that Al-Harini had been arrested at a checkpoint in Masafer Yatta, and he is currently being tried in the Ofer Military Court on charges of interfering with and assaulting a soldier and entering a closed military zone, following his participation in a demonstration on January 8, 2021.

His lawyer, Reham Nasra, told AFP that he is being tried "just because he dared to protest against the occupation."

Nasra explained that "Sami - like other Masafer Yatta activists who believe in peaceful protest - suffers from the daily persecution of the army and the injustice of military law that tramples on the basic human rights of Palestinians."

The Israeli army says that Sami Al-Harini "is accused of participating in a violent demonstration against soldiers, and inciting other demonstrators to violence against the security forces."