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Israeli Army Seeks to Evict Villagers to Expand Firing Zone

The Israeli army wants to evacuate the Palestinian West Bank villages of Masafer Yatta to accomodate its live-fire training area. 
A Bedouin boy rides a donkey near a sign in the West Bank village of Wadi al-Maleh, near the border with Jordan April 29, 2013. Israeli soldiers on Monday evicted several hundred Bedouins from the village in the occupied West Bank after the army declared the area a live-fire training zone. The residents of Wadi al-Maleh, a village mostly inhabited by shepherds in the arid area, had almost all left their homes by an evening curfew and retreated to neighbouring villages, a local leader told Reuters. REUTERS/M

As Palestinian and Israeli negotiators begin their second round of peace talks with a special focus on borders and security, an entirely Israeli set of judges will decide the fate of one Palestinian community south of Hebron.

The area, known to Palestinians as Masafer Yatta, spans over 12,200 cultivated dunums and contains 12 villages with a total population of over 1,300 people. On the other side of the Green Line separating Israel from the occupied territories is the Israeli Nahal Brigade training base in Tel Arad, just inside the 1949 armistice lines.

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