Israeli military forces should cease actions in a West Bank Bedouin community that were apparently intended to displace the residents without lawful justification, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.

"The military demolished all homes in the community on September 16, 2013, and blocked four attempts by humanitarian groups to provide shelters, with soldiers using force against residents, humanitarian workers, and foreign diplomats on September 20. Under international humanitarian law in effect in the occupied West Bank, the deliberate unlawful forced transfer of a population is a war crime," the report said.

"The Israeli military should end its unjustified attempts to forcibly remove a decades-old community," said Joe Stork, acting Middle East director. "Israeli forces didn't just rough up diplomats, they demolished every single building in Mak-hul and ordered the residents to leave and never come back."

"Residents said that since September 16, military officials have repeatedly told them to leave and not return to the site of the community. Israeli forces' blocking of humanitarian assistance into Mak-hul for more than a week has deprived residents of adequate shelter in the community and food for their sheep, on which their livelihoods depend in a desert environment," the report added.

According to Human Rights Watch, Israeli forces have demolished 524 Palestinian-owned structures in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since the beginning of 2013, displacing 862 people according to UN records.

"Deliberate and extensive destruction of civilian property, except when absolutely necessary for military operations, is also a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention," it noted.