Israeli municipality workers, on Sunday, distributed orders for the demolition of eight buildings in East Jerusalem, witnesses and residents told Ma’an News Agency.
Notices were issued in the neighborhoods of Wadi al-Hilweh, Ein al-Lawza, Bier Ayub, and Wad Yasoul, witnesses said.
Resident Said Nasser said that he was handed demolition orders for three car repair shops he owns in the Ein al-Lawza neighborhood.
He said that he would be fined 150,000 shekels ($43,000) for the shops’ ‘illegal’ construction; the shops were built 20 years ago, he said.
Israel rarely grants Palestinians permits to build in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. It has demolished at least 27,000 Palestinian homes and structures since occupying the West Bank in 1967, according to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.
The internationally recognized Palestinian territories, of which the West Bank and East Jerusalem form a part, have been occupied by the Israeli military since 1967.
