The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Tuesday that since the beginning of July 2023, 13 Palestinian families including 84 individuals (44 children and 40 adults) have been displaced from Masafer Yatta.

OCHA considered this to be part of the increasing restrictions imposed by Israeli forces on the movement of these families, as it is the main reason behind their displacement.

Until recently, 13 population centers in Masafer Yatta, located in the south of the West Bank, housed 215 Palestinian families, comprising about 1,150 people. These gatherings are located within an area of 18 percent of the West Bank that the Israeli authorities declared “firing zones” and designated for military training. The people who were displaced from their communities during the past three months represent about 7 percent of its population. As stated in the UN report.

He added: Over the years, and increasingly since May 2022, the Israeli authorities have imposed movement restrictions, confiscated property, demolished homes, and conducted military training in Masafer Yatta. Together, these practices contributed to creating a coercive environment that forced residents to move out.

The restrictions imposed on movement have become more severe over the past three months, as Israeli forces operating from a recently established military base patrol the area more frequently and impose further restrictions on people’s movement and their ability to access markets and basic services and transport fodder and other inputs for livestock. On which families depend.

These forces also confiscated vehicles used by residents, and two schools in the area reported that 24 students dropped out this year, including students whose families were deported in this coercive environment and others who fear the unsafe journey to their schools. In one incident, in September, Israeli forces stopped teachers on their way to school and threatened to confiscate their vehicle if they took it again.

Since March 2023, one of the residential communities in Masafer Yatta, Khirbet Bir al-Ad, has been devoid of its residents following the displacement of the last two families there. In this case, members of these two families cited escalating settler violence as the main reason that prompted them to leave. This community has become one of four Palestinian population centers that have been completely empty in the West Bank since 2022.

Humanitarian organizations and donors are still providing assistance to the population centers in Masafer Yatta to meet their basic needs. However, over the years, Israeli authorities have hampered these efforts by issuing demolition or “stop work” orders, confiscating vehicles and equipment, and imposing physical restrictions on access to land and the entry of humanitarian workers. A project launched in May 2023 to provide emergency shelter was forced to stop its work after the Israeli authorities confiscated rehabilitation materials.

Forcible transfer of civilians from or within the occupied Palestinian territory is prohibited under international humanitarian law. As Ocha says.

The United Nations called on the Israeli authorities to stop all coercive measures, including movement restrictions, planned evictions and demolitions, and military training in residential areas.