Palestinian civilians are being embroiled in Israeli military training, including mock arrests, raids on private homes and incursions into villages, without being told they are involved in army exercises.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) defended the training exercises following complaints from an Israeli human rights group, Yesh Din, about two separate drills held earlier this year. In the first, a large number of troops in full combat gear spread out in a small Palestinian village for several hours, causing alarm and fear among its population. In the second, about 15 armed soldiers raided the house of a family while they were finishing their evening meal during Ramadan. In neither case were residents told that it was a training exercise.

The Palestinians caught up in training drills are not informed in advance that an arrest or raid is an exercise. According to the testimonies of former Israeli soldiers, civilians with no connection with militant activity are usually selected for such exercises. "We used houses, streets, people like cardboard practice targets," said one.

In a letter dated 28 October in response to Yesh Din, Israel's military advocate general (part of the IDF) said: "According to the laws of belligerent occupation, the military commander is obligated to maintain security and public order [in the West Bank]. In order to maintain the competence of IDF forces to carry out that mission, the IDF must train, sometimes even in populated areas."

However, it said, soldiers "must avoid endangering the population, causing damage to its property or unreasonably disturbing its living routine".

In the first of the two cases taken up recently by Yesh Din, which has monitored IDF training exercises since 2007, a large number of Israeli soldiers entered the Palestinian village of Amatin, in the northern West Bank, on 29 May. According to Yesh Din, the troops spread out through the village for several hours, withdrawing just before midnight. "From the responses of those to whom we spoke, they were very afraid – especially children and the elderly," said Emily Schaeffer, a Yesh Din lawyer.

The IDF said the exercise was a "navigating run … whose purpose was to acquaint the forces more closely with the relevant sector, as well as demonstrating IDF presence in the area". It said the exercise was held in such a way as to minimise friction with residents, and dismissed the complaint.

The second case concerned a military exercise at the home of Issa Amro in the city of Hebron during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Amro, a well-known activist, and his family were finishing iftar, the evening meal that breaks the daytime fast, when about 15 soldiers suddenly entered the family's yard at about 9pm. Wearing helmets, body armour and carrying weapons, they used a ladder to enter the house from an upstairs window.

The soldiers then went to a neighbour's house, where they broke a door down, and returned to Amro's house after midnight for a second exercise in his yard.

he IDF said that the exercise had been conducted "improperly".

"It was wrong to conduct the exercise in a private area, without any urgent, concrete operational justification, and without advance co-ordination."

However, a request from the military advocate general for an internal inquiry by the unit meant there was "no reason for our continued treatment of this matter".

Schaeffer said the IDF's duty to maintain public order in the occupied territories did not justify its treatment of Palestinians during the conduct of exercises, which she described as an "unnecessary and unlawful violation of basic rights". They presented a threat to safety and property, and were an egregious invasion of privacy, she added.

Yesh Din also has footage of what it says is an IDF training exercise conducted in a Muslim cemetery in Hebron, in which some soldiers appear to be playing the part of Palestinian protesters. Former Israeli soldiers have attested to the use of Palestinian civilians and private homes in training exercises in statements given to Breaking the Silence, an organisation that monitors military activity in the occupied territories.

"You knock on the door, no one opens, you knock harder, the guy comes out, he doesn't understand because there is no reason. It's not as if he did anything," said Moran Gonen, an ex-soldier, describing a mock arrest in Hebron.

The soldiers "simulate a search for weapons … All this time we're outside, surrounding the house like a real arrest, weapons ready and everything," he added. After the exercise, they let the "suspect" go.

Another ex-soldier, Sagi Tal, said arrests were often carried out at night "to make it as real as possible". He added: "You wake up a family, carry out the tough tasks an arrest entails, and you do it just to practise."

Palestinians with no record of militant activity were deliberately selected, said Nadav Bigelman. "There's no intelligence on the people, they don't belong to any terrorist organisation, there are no weapons in the house. We know they are innocent civilians."

The purpose, Bigelman added, was twofold: to train soldiers in making arrests, and "for them to know we are always there … to give people a sense of lack of basic certainty".

A spokesperson for Al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights organisation, said: "International humanitarian law allows for requisition of private property only for the needs of the army of occupation and prohibits the destruction of private property unless absolutely necessary for military operations. Requisition or destruction of property for a planned military training exercise cannot be considered a necessity."