A petition to the High Court of Justice heard Monday states that the Israel Defense Forces has offered to "voluntarily transfer" the residents of two villages in the West Bank, in order to avoid disruption over the route of the separation fence.

The offer to the two villages, which are located within the territorial perimeter claimed by the adjacent settlement of Alfei Menashe, came after the court determined that the current route of the fence in the area was illegal.

The court ruled more than a year ago in favor of a peition by the residents of five villages in the "Alfei Menashe enclave," and told the IDF to dismantle the fence where it cut the villages off from the rest of the West Bank.

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The details of the IDF offer emerged Monday during a court hearing on a fresh petition against the new route, co-presented by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.

The petition brands the IDF offer as "encouragement of voluntary transfer with the purpose of annexing the land to Israel."

According to the offer, the villages would be relocated to another area within the West Bank.

The term "voluntary transfer" was coined by slain cabinet minister Rehavam Ze'evi to describe a program of encouraging Palestinians to leave the West Bank and Gaza.

Settlers ordered to evacuate 4 Hebron buildings
Meanwhile, authorities on Tuesday ordered settlers to evacuate four homes in a heavily guarded enclave in the West Bank city of Hebron, saying the structures were illegally built.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the orders were issued to the residents without incident. Residents of Hebron's small settler community have clashed with police during similar attempts to evacuate illegal buildings in the past.

Rosenfeld did not have any information about when the settlers would have to leave.

An estimated 500 settlers live in Hebron among 160,000 Palestinians.