About a dozen Palestinian households in a village in the occupied West Bank were told to leave their properties during an Israeli military operation to remove Israeli settlers.

The settlers had besieged residents in three homes in the area since Sunday, cutting off their power and water supplies.

Qusra Mayor, Abdel Azim Wadi, told the BBC that his village had been declared a closed military zone – and Israeli forces were using some of the vacated Palestinian houses as barracks. The Israeli military said the aim was “to protect the residents”.

An Israeli spokesman told the BBC the settlers’ action was “deplorable” and “unacceptable” and the government would investigate and arrest those responsible.

“The Israeli army is acting against it, and we are investigating it and we will arrest those responsible and we will prosecute them,” David Mencer said.

Settlers have been emboldened by the rapid expansion of settlements under the current Israeli government – leading to a dramatic rise in settler violence as they try to drive Palestinians off their land.

All settlements are illegal under international law.

Of the besieged families’ three homes in Qusra, which are made up of the Abu Ridi and Hassan families, the residents of two were told to leave on Thursday, they told the BBC. They said those told to leave had since moved into the third house.

Elsewhere in the village, the residents of 11 other houses had also been told to leave by the army.

One of those was Qaher Odeh, who said more than 20 soldiers had entered his house in the morning. They later left but then came back, telling him and his brother they were in a military post and that they needed to leave.

“We left and kept walking down towards the lower part of the neighbourhood. Shortly afterwards, they sealed off the entire area,” Odeh said.

“There were people being forced out of their homes. A lot of people,” he added.