Bulldozers demolish buildings in the village of Khirbet al-Tabban, Wednesday. Credit: B'Tselem

by Matan Golan          2 September 2026              Haaretz

Israeli forces destroyed on Wednesday almost all buildings and infrastructure in a Palestinian village in the West Bank's South Hebron Hills region, marking the most significant demolition in the area in over a year.

Except for a single sheep pen and solar panels, all structures and infrastructure in Khirbet al-Tabban, a village of 70 people, including about 30 minors, were demolished, according to the rights group B'Tselem.

This is the most significant demolition in the Masafer Yatta region since the demolition of the village of Khalat al-Daba in May 2025. 

Yuli Novak, B'Tselem's executive director, said that "Israel continues to erase Palestinian communities at an accelerated pace as part of the ethnic cleansing it is carrying out in the West Bank. Palestinian lives remain completely exposed to Israeli violence."

 Demolition in the village of Khirbet al-Tabban, Wednesday. Credit: B'Tselem

In 2022, the Supreme Court allowed the expulsion of residents from eight villages in Masafer Yatta for regular IDF training. The court accepted the government's position that there hadn't been permanent residents living there prior to its being declared a firing zone in 1981– even though at least some of the villages appear by name on various maps drawn before 1967.

The court also rejected the residents' arguments that the expulsion was contrary to international law and that they had been living there since before Israel was established.

In practice, the state has not acted to evacuate them since then, but has focused on demolishing structures within them. 

At the heart of the legal discussion was the question of permanent versus seasonal dwellings, with these villages having been recognized as "cave villages," which residents still use today. 

Demolished buildings in Masafer Yatta, May, 2025. Credit: Moti Milrod

At the same time, since 2023, 10 illegal outposts have been established within the firing zone, including at least three farms set up in coordination with the political echelon. 

Despite the entrenchment of these outposts within the firing zone, in June 2025 the IDF reiterated its position that Palestinian buildings there interfere with training, thereby harming the operational readiness of the soldiers.

Last September, Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, Central Command chief, signed eight orders that redrew the boundaries of West Bank firing zones to legalize encroaching outposts and allow the expansion of other settlements. 

Additionally, at least six settlements have been approved for legalization by the cabinet within firing zones since 2023. 

According to B'Tselem, including the village of Khirbet al-Tabban, Israel has expelled 66 Palestinian communities from their homes since October 2023, in addition to 18 communities that were partially expelled. 

According to the data, 4,931 Palestinians were displaced, including 2,339 minors. 

The Civil Administration, Israel's governing body in the West Bank, said forces operated against illegal structures built in an IDF fire zone in Area C, which is under full Israeli control under the Oslo Accords, and added that the buildings were under a demolition order.

Firing zones are designated for IDF training, and civilian entry into them is prohibited without coordination. Until the 1980s, Israel declared about 18 percent of West Bank land as fire zones. 

In 1979, then-agriculture minister – and later prime minister – Ariel Sharon said his goal in initiating the fire zones in 1967 was "to maintain a reserve for settlement," according to the minutes of a discussion of the Ministerial Committee for Settlement. 

Already in the previous decade, a senior official in Central Command compared Palestinian construction in West Bank firing zones to weeds, and said that where there is no training, "calluses grow." 

He added that the training there was intended to reduce the number of Palestinians living in these areas, as part of "the struggle against unauthorized Palestinian construction."

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