Israeli troops reportedly knocked down, on Tuesday morning, a number of Palestinian-owned homes in the internationally-recognized occupied East Jerusalem.
Head of the Palestinian committee for defending Palestinian lands in the Sawarha neighborhood, Youmis Ja’far, told media outlets that Israeli soldiers, backed by armored vehicles, invaded the neighborhood and forced local residents out of their homes, before the bulldozers began demolishing them.
Ja’far warned against what he termed stepped up Israeli demolitions of Palestinian-owned properties, across the occupied East Jerusalem, under an ‘unacceptable Israeli pretext, building without permission’.
The local Palestinian activist noted that the Sawarha area is included in Israel’s scheme to construct more colonial settlements in the occupied part of Jerusalem, despite the fact that all Israeli settlements are illegal under Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and United Nations Security resolution 242 of 1967.
It should be noted, that earlier, Israeli occupation authorities handed over demolition warrants to four other Palestinian families in the Jerusalem. One of those families had their home funded by the European Union (EU).
In another similar incident, local sources in the Silwan neighborhood, just south of the Al-Aaqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, said that Israeli troops’ bulldozers demolished the home of Aesha Hejazi, a mother of eight children, under the same allegation that the home was built without Israeli permission.
The sources said that the family received a warrant six months ago, but the family is impoverished and was not able to appeal the unjustified demolition.
Image: AIC
