Israel's military said today it had ordered 15 Palestinian prisoners involved in "terror activity" to be expelled from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip.
It would be the largest deportation of its kind since the start of the Palestinian uprising for independence that began in September 2000 after peace talks became deadlocked.
The army said the prisoners had been transferred from West Bank prisons to a detention centre on the edge of the Gaza Strip ahead of being released into Palestinian-ruled territory there.
They were given 48 hours to appeal the move. Palestinians and international human rights groups have opposed such action in the past as violations of international law.
Israel, which last year deported two Palestinians accused of helping a suicide bomber to the Gaza Strip, said it had issued the expulsion warrants for the 15 "to prevent the re-absorption of those with warrants against them into the circle of terror".
None of the Palestinians due to be deported to the Gaza Strip had "blood on their hands", a euphemism for carrying out killings of Israelis, but they were all "involved in assisting terror activity," the army said without elaborating.
It said that the prisoners were being expelled because they could not be put on trial without revealing sensitive intelligence information.