Israel Allows Settlers Back into Contested W. Bank Home

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon on Sunday approved the return of Jewish settlers to a contested house in the West Bank city of Hebron, a statement from his office said.

Israel's Supreme Court ruled last month that settlers were the lawful owners of the building in the heart of the occupied city, ending a legal dispute lasting nearly seven years.

"Following the court decision... Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon today (Sunday) approved habitation of the house," the statement said, adding that the area military instructor had been told to allow "a limited number of families to the house."

The Palestinian Rajabi family has for years said its four-story building had been taken over fraudulently by Israeli settlers.

An Israeli lower court in 2012 accepted their claim, ruling that the settlers' assertion that they had legally purchased the property "does not hold water."

The Supreme Court overturned that judgment on appeal.

The building is near a contested holy site known to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque and to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs in a tightly controlled Israeli enclave where many streets are off-limits to Palestinian cars.

The settlers were evacuated in 2008, and the Supreme Court ruling said they would not be allowed to move back in without defense ministry approval.

The flashpoint city of Hebron, home to nearly 200,000 Palestinians, also comprises some 80 settler homes in the center of town housing about 700 Jews who live under Israeli army protection.