Israeli occupation soldiers verbally notified five families living in the vicinity of the village of Rantis, northwest of Ramallah, to evacuate their homes and farms, in favor of colonial expansion in the area.

Local sources said that these families are subjected to continuous threats from the Israeli occupation and settlers to evacuate their homes and farms, noting that these families have been living in the vicinity of the village for years, and are still steadfast despite the threats.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz said on Friday that a number of occupation soldiers stormed the area on Thursday and tried to forcibly displace Palestinian families, while the occupation army claimed that this was a "piracy operation" and that "the soldiers who carried it out are not authorized to expel Palestinian families."

She said, "Last week, soldiers raided the area and gave Palestinian families a week to leave. After that, soldiers came several times and demanded that the families leave their homes and lands. Yesterday morning, soldiers came again and gave Palestinian families four hours to leave their homes, and some of the families left the area."

Citizen Bilal Mahariq said: “We do not know where to go, and we want to stay, but we are afraid that the occupation soldiers will attack us.”

He added that the belief among the citizens is that the attempt to displace them is linked to the random colonial outpost "Havat Avihai" that was established in the area about two years ago.

Haaretz pointed out that the occupation army classifies this area as "Live Ammunition Training Area 203," meaning that the army has seized it, and no such training has been conducted there for some time, but the aforementioned colonial outpost was established in this area.

It quoted Dror Etkes, a settlement researcher from the human rights organization Kerem Nevot, as confirming that “no demolition notices were issued for any of the Palestinian buildings in this area, and aerial photographs show that Palestinian families have been present in this area since at least 2007.”

Abdullah Darwish, 57, from the village of Al-Lubban Al-Gharbi, who owns a farm in the area, said that occupation soldiers raided his farm on Thursday of last week, insulted him, and pushed his wife. They hit him with a rifle on the side of his chest. They did not allow him to speak, and one of the soldiers told him: “You will not stay here, and if you stay here until Thursday I will burn you and the place,” and threw a sound bomb between him and his wife. He said: “Be careful, be careful, I will be back.”

Darwish added that the occupation soldiers returned last Monday, while he was with his wife and three children on his farm. They asked him why he remained there and fired into the air. When his son tried to take pictures, the soldiers broke his mobile phone, then hit one of his sons with a rifle in the stomach. When his son tried to push the soldier away, the latter threatened to arrest him.

Researcher Atkes confirmed that Darwish's farm is not located within the area classified by the occupation army as a "firing zone."

“It is clear that this is not a spontaneous initiative by an officer who decided on his own to expel Palestinian farmers who have been living there for many years,” he said, adding that “the attempt to displace the Palestinians is linked to the illegal settlement outpost, and this is another blatant example of the disintegration of the army and the transformation of parts of it into militias that operate according to an independent agenda in the service of the most violent and extremist settlers.”

During the past year 2024, the occupation’s measures led to the forced displacement of 7 Palestinian communities consisting of 34 families with 215 individuals from their places of residence, in addition to 22 Palestinian Bedouin communities consisting of 277 families with 1,707 individuals, who were forcibly displaced after October 7, 2023, according to a report by the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission.