After two decades of inconclusive legal maneuvering, the Israeli Supreme Court is expected to hand down a ruling soon on the IDF's move to demolish eight small communities in a rocky, arid area of the southern West Bank near the city of Hebron.
Petitioners say this move would make more than 1,000 Palestinians homeless and endanger their distinct, generations-long nomadic way of life, eking out a living from farming and herding.
"They have been dragging us from one court hearing to another for 22 years," Othman al-Jabareen, one of the Palestinian petitioners, said in court. "God willing, the justices will let us stay on our land because we have no other option."
The state prosecutor said in Tuesday's hearing that the military has conclusively stated the crucial importance of the area for military training. "We've looked into that issue over and over," the prosecution said.
The area, spanning 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres) and known to Palestinians as Masafer Yatta, and to Israelis as the South Hebron Hills, lies close to the West Bank border with Israel.
In 1999, hundreds of Palestinian inhabitants were displaced from their homes after the military declared the area a military exercise zone. Initial petitions were filed in 2000 and a court ordered the Israeli government to allow the residents to return pending a final ruling.
After repeated delays and failed mediation attempts, the government and military filed responses to the Palestinian petitions in 2012.
As the case languished without a definitive outcome over the past two decades, Palestinian residents said they were denied building permits with the army demolishing any new structures including houses, water wells and solar panels. The military, meanwhile, has conducted only sporadic exercises.
Palestinians in the area also say they have struggled to connect to water and electricity networks to which nearby Jewish settlements have access.
"This case is not about a firing zone, it is about taking control of land, because unlike other areas, most of this land is privately owned," said Shlomo Lecker who, along with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, is representing 200 of the Palestinian families under threat of displacement.
"In effect, this is land expropriation without compensation."
Outside the Jerusalem court, dozens of Israeli protesters opposed to Israeli presence in the West Bank since the 1967 Six Day War, held up signs reading, "Families, not firing zones" and "Masafer Yatta is not a military playground".
First published: 23:46, 03.15.22