Israeli court paves way for eviction of 1,000 Palestinians from West Bank area

Land to be repurposed for military use in one of the biggest expulsion decisions since 1967 occupation

After a two-decade legal battle, Israel's high court has ruled that about 1,000 Palestinians can be evicted from an area of the West Bank and the land repurposed for Israeli military use, in one of the single biggest expulsion decisions since the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories began in 1967.

About 3,000 hectares of Masafer Yatta, a rural area of the south Hebron hills under full Israeli control and home to several small Palestinian villages, was designated as a firing zone" by the Israeli state in the 1980s, to be used for military exercises, in which the presence of civilians is prohibited.