The Palestinian foreign ministry has expressed “great concern” for the forced displacement of the Bedouin communities throughout Israel-occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera reports.

It said in a statement that the attacks by the Israeli settlers against the communities come with the support and protection of the army and the direct supervision of Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

The latest displacement of the last Palestinian Bedouin family came in Umm al-Jimal in the northern Jordan Valley, bringing the number of forcibly displaced Bedouin communities to 40, the ministry was quoted as saying.

The ministry called it a “crime of ethnic cleansing” and said it was part of the “ongoing gradual annexation of the occupied West Bank and emptying it of its inhabitants and original owners”.

It called for deterrent international sanctions against “not only the extremist settlers and their armed militias but also the ministers and officials in the Israeli government who provide protection, support, funding, and backing — such as Smotrich and Ben-Gvir”.