RAFAT, West Bank (AFP) - Palestinian residents of this small village near Ramallah set up a protest tent in a bid to prevent Israel from seizing land for the construction of its West Bank barrier.

Members of the municipal council told AFP they received notice Wednesday from the Israeli civil administration that 1.6 dunams (half an acre, 0.2 hectare) would be seized "for military and security reasons".

While it is a small area, the land affected is located on a strategic hilltop that overlooks both Jerusalem and Ramallah.

The villagers who planted their tent and flags there do not yet know on which side of their 2,000-strong community Israel's separation barrier will leave them but they suspect that the army wants to use the hill for surveillance purposes.

"If the Israelis take this land, it's like a death sentence for the Rafat people. This place was our only way to breathe, if it goes we will be completely stifled," said Ziad Rafati, one of the demonstrators in his forties.

The village is already surrounded and the Israeli order would take away a strip of land which commands the northern road to Ramallah and is the only exit.

According to the head of the local council, Mohammad Taha, Rafat has already seen 90 percent of it surface seized by Israel since 1967.

It is separated by a fence from the Israeli settlement of Atarot to the east, tucked against the Jewish Jerusalem neighbourhood of Givat Zeev to the south and the Ofer detention camp to the west.

The order sent to the municipality said the army would roll in on Thursday to implement the decision.