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troops attacked activists protesting in the occupied expulsion-threatened area on Friday, witnesses and sources said.

The activists were marching against apartheid and colonisation "at the entrance" of Al-Tuwana village when they were "assaulted and beaten up", official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, citing the witnesses and sources.

Villagers, rights defenders and allies from abroad joined the demonstration, holding Palestinian flags and signs critical of Israel's system of apartheid.

Local activist Rateb Jabour said the Israeli troops' violence and other past assaults would not crush the Palestinian people's resolve in their homeland.

Masafer Yatta is an area near Hebron which the Israeli army has designated as a firing zone.

Israel's Supreme Court in May upheld the military's position, greenlighting the destruction of homes and forcible ejection of over 1,000 people from 12 villages.

The court said Palestinians did not reside permanently in Masafer Yatta when the military claimed it four decades ago.

But locals and Israeli rights groups reject this, saying they have been there even before Israel's 1967 capture of the West Bank.

Palestinian residents are refusing to leave Masafer Yatta, hoping their resilience and international pressure will save them from expulsion by Israel.

Israeli soldiers and settlers commonly use violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Celebrated Al Jazeera reporter was shot dead by Israeli forces on 11 May as she covered a military raid in Jenin refugee camp.