The villages of Masafer Yatta are now facing daily violent attacks from settlers who have moved herds of livestock into villages and are destroying all crops and trees, and threatening the inhabitants. Any effort on the part of residents to protect their own livestock, homes and property results in the settlers calling the army and police to arrest the landowners.  Settlers enter villages at night at will, and all of the villages have incurred injuries and property damage. The entire area is on the brink of ereasure.

At the same time, a recent de facto court decision has cleared the way for full scale demolition of homes and many villages have already been almost completely flattened.

On June 18, Israel’s Higher Planning Council for the West Bank made a devastating and arbitrary decision: to permit IDF training in the infamous Firing Zone 918. This means the total demolition of 12 villages — home to around 2,800 people — and the final stage of ethnic cleansing in Masafer Yatta.

Firing Zone 918 was never about security. As admitted by its initiator, Ariel Sharon, it was established in the 1980s to “enable Jewish settlement” by pushing Palestinians off their land. The IDF has barely used the area for training, yet lied for decades in court claiming it was essential. Meanwhile, the state has supported many illegal outposts on Palestinian land in the area, clearly revealing that the “security” argument is a fiction.

After avoiding a final ruling for decades, in May 2022 settler-judge David Mintz issued a distorted and error-filled verdict approving the eviction of residents from land their families have lived on for generations. Since then, the IDF and settlers have carried out systematic harassment: violent attacks, destruction of homes, denial of grazing rights, and widespread demolitions.

Now, based on a confidential military order dated June 17, all planning and legal procedures in the area have been frozen, citing a vague and unsupported “security need.” This clears the way for mass demolitions — within days or weeks.

This is happening under the cover of war with Iran, in blatant disregard for due process and the rule of law. The state is using false “security” claims to justify destruction and displacement. The courts have made it clear: they will not act to protect Palestinian rights—not property, not dignity, not justice.

According to the residents’ legal teams, only two channels remain to try to stop this: strengthening the communities through our personal presence and support on the ground; and generating immediate diplomatic pressure abroad.

If you have any connection — personal, professional, direct or indirect — to foreign embassies, parliamentarians in Europe or the U.S., or international organizations — please send them this letter.

Ask yourself: Who can I reach out to today? Who might raise their voice, apply pressure, and help stop the expulsion?

Cassandra Dixon

Statement of Youth of Sumud

On 18 June 2025, the Higher Planning Council issued a directive for the Firing Zone 918 to all its subcommittees authorizing the rejection of demolition objections and planning procedures based solely on a military commander’s notice dated 17 June 2025. This notice, which remains undisclosed to the public, claims that military training is now required across the entirety of Firing Zone 918.

This signals the de facto annulment of all ongoing legal channels and planning procedures, including detailed plans, precautionary orders, hearings, and permit requests submitted by residents of the communities of Sfai, Al-Majaz, Jinba, Taban, Tuba, Al-Halawah, Al-Markez, and Al-Fakhit, as well as in other villages located in the Firing Zone 918 with pending cases. We now anticipate a wave of legal rejections in the coming days, particularly in Al-Majaz, Sfai, Jinba, and Tuba. Vital community infrastructure, including the schools in Sfai, Fakhit, and Jinba, is also now at imminent risk.

Despite the availability of “dry areas” that would allow for training without civilian harm and displacement, the military is invoking “necessity” with near-total impunity to justify mass displacement. No alternatives have been offered, regardless of the wet and dry areas, and residents are being left with nowhere to go.

This move amounts to the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Masafer communities by cutting them off from their private lands, grazing zones, and basic livelihoods. It is crucial to emphasize that military training can and must be conducted in alternative areas that do not require the forcible transfer of Palestinians or the destruction of civilian life and heritage.

This is not about security. The targeting of Firing Zone 918 reflects longstanding settler interests and the broader political aim of creating territorial contiguity between Ma’ale Adumim, Kiryat Arba, and Be’er Sheva. This objective undermines the viability of a future Palestinian state.

The ICJ’s July 2024 Advisory Opinion affirms that such displacement violates international law.

In light of the above, we call on diplomatic and multilateral actors to:

• Publicly denounce the planned expulsions in Masafer Yatta and the rest of the West Bank;

• Demand the immediate suspension of all demolition and displacement operations in Firing Zone 918;

• Pursue consequences for ongoing violations, including actions through the UN Security Council, the International Criminal Court, and other relevant mechanisms, and impose sanctions where appropriate.

• We urge you not to allow the ICJ’s findings to remain abstract. The forced transfer of Palestinian communities from their ancestral lands in the occupied territory is a grave breach of international humanitarian law and cannot be tolerated.

The time for principled, coordinated diplomatic intervention is now.

More on Masafer Yatta

• Palestinians fear razing of villages in West Bank, as settlers circle their homes, The Guardian, Jul 7, 2025
• 12 communities in Masafer Yatta face immediate expulsion, B’Tselem בצלם on Facebook