JERUSALEM – The Israeli military on Wednesday demolished at least 18 buildings and structures in the occupied West Bank following a Supreme Court ruling that would force about 1,000 Palestinians out of an area designated by Israel as a firing zone, rights groups say.
The demolition comes a week after Israel’s Supreme Court upheld an expulsion order that would force residents of a cluster of Bedouin communities in Yatta, Masaf, where they say they have lived for decades. The military declared the area a firing zone in the early 1980s.
Neither the Israeli military agency COGAT nor the army, which is in charge of civilian affairs in the occupied territories, responded to requests for comment on the destruction.
According to Israeli activist group Peace Now, an Israeli planning committee was to call on Thursday to move more than 4,500 housing units to settlements in the West Bank, many of which are deep in the land.
If approved, it would be the largest batch of new settlement construction since President Joe Biden took office. The White House opposes the expansion of the settlement and believes it hinders a two-state solution to decades of conflict.
In the 1967 Middle East war, Israel occupied the West Bank and built more than 130 settlements around the settlements of about 500,000 settlers. About 3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank under Israeli military rule.
The Palestinians want the West Bank to be a major part of a future state. They see the expansion of the settlement as a major obstacle to any future peace agreement because they reduce and divide the land on which such a state will be established. Most of the international community considers the settlements illegal.
