(JTA) — The Israel Defense Forces prepared to demolish 28 buildings in three Israeli West Bank outposts, following a court order given last year.

IDF soldiers entered Maale Rehavam, Givat Asaf and Ramat Gilad Wednesday as they prepared to evacuate the buildings, which include a synagogue. In November 2013, Israel’s Supreme Court ordered that the buildings must come down within six months because they were built illegally on private land, according to Israeli reports.

The state will also retroactively declare the rest of the three outposts legal, as the remainder of their buildings were built on state-owned land.

The IDF feared violent resistance to the demolitions from settlers, and sent hundreds of troops in to carry out the operation, according to the Times of Israel.

“There is a false conception that settlements mean land theft,” a spokesman for Maale Rehavam told Haaretz. “For some people, this justifies stealing and destroying Jewish land.”

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