The Israeli occupation forces evicted four Palestinian families from their homes in the Khirbet Al-Yirza area of the Jordan Valley, in the northern occupied West Bank, to make way for military training exercises in the area.

Activist Aref Daraghmeh said that Israeli military forces were heavily deployed in Khirbet Al-Yirza.

Israeli forces evacuated the four families from their land and farms claiming that military training would be conducted in the area.

Daraghmeh said that Israeli forces had demolished the families’ properties several days ago, including water pipelines.

The Israeli authorities delivered evacuation notices to the families last week.

The notices had a schedule of the planned times Israeli forces would conduct military operations in the area; Monday from 4pm to 6am, Thursday from 4pm to 6am, and Tuesday 14 August from 4pm until 6am on Thursday 15 August.

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The majority of the Jordan Valley is under full Israeli military control, despite being within the occupied West Bank. At least 44 per cent of the total area of the Jordan Valley has been reappropriated by Israeli occupation forces for military purposes and training exercises.

According to the Palestinian nonprofit the Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem (ARIJ), more than 400,000 dunams (98,842 acres) of the 720,000 dunams (177,916 acres) that make up the total area of the Jordan Valley has been transformed into closed military and firing zones, with at least 27,000 dunams (6,672 acres) confiscated for illegal Israeli settlement building.