Israeli occupation forces ordered on Sunday the demolition of 8 Palestinian homes in the villages of Ad-Deirat and Ar-Refa’iyaa in Masafer Yatta region, to the south of AlKhalil, in the occupied West Bank.

Fo’ad Le’mour, a local Palestinian activist, told WAFA news agency that an Israeli army force stormed two villages and handed notifications for the demolition of four homes in the each of the two villages.

Seven of the houses slated for demolition are already inhabited by local Palestinian households, while only one is currently under construction.

On May 4, the Israeli High Court gave the Israeli army the green light to demolish and displace over 1000 Palestinians living in some eight communities in Masafer Yatta in order to turn the area into a training and a firing zone.

The decision promoted strong local and international condemnation and warning of serious consequences if carried out.

Israel has been gradually demolishing homes and displacing families in several Masafer Yatta communities over the past few weeks.

Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem has slammed the court ruling as being intended to forcibly transfer hundreds of Palestinians from their homes and destroy their communities “the clear purpose of which is to take over their lands in the service of Jewish interests”

“The decision, weaving baseless legal interpretation with decontextualized facts, makes it clear that there is no crime which the high court justices will not find a way to legitimize. Employing sugarcoated language, hypocrisy, and lies, the justices once again fulfilled their role in Israel’s regime of Jewish supremacy and paved the way for the crime of forcible transfer to be committed, while reversing reality: the ruling cast Palestinian victims as the “unlawful” offenders, while portraying the apartheid regime as the victim.”