The Israeli military government handed on Wednesday demolition orders against five Palestinian homes in the southern West Bank village of Birin in Masafer Yatta.

Rateb al-Jabour, Coordinator of the Nationalist and Popular Committees for the Resistance Against the Wall and Settlements, was quoted by Wafa news agency as stating that the Israeli military gave the five families 96 hours before it is going to proceed with the demolitions.

He said the decision is part of a larger Israeli plan to empty that area of its Palestinian residents and build illegal settlements.