NABLUS (Ma’an) -- Israeli authorities issued eviction orders to 40 families in a Nablus village on Wednesday, a Palestinian official said.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank, told Ma'an that Israeli forces gave the families in Khirbet Tana, in Area C, until Saturday to leave their homes.

The Israeli army is planning to turn the area into a military training zone.

If the order goes ahead, it will be one of the largest displacement operations undertaken by Israel, Daghlas added.

In the first six months of 2011, Israeli authorities demolished 342 Palestinian-owned structures in Area C, displacing a total of 656 Palestinians, including 351 children -- almost five times as many demolitions and people displaced as during the first half of 2010, according to UN agency OCHA.

From 2000 to 2007, the Civil Administration approved 5 percent of the applications for building permits submitted by Palestinians in Area C.