Israeli occupation forces demolished three Palestinian homes belonging to the Alqam family on Wednesday in the Al-Ashqariya neighborhood of Beit Hanina, north of occupied Jerusalem, while also uprooting trees and destroying surrounding agricultural land.
Rateb Alqam, one of the homeowners, said Israeli forces invaded the area without prior notice, ordered the family to leave, and prevented residents from retrieving clothing, personal belongings, or household possessions before the demolitions began.
Bulldozers then razed the three homes, uprooted trees around the properties, and leveled cultivated land.
Israeli authorities said the demolitions were carried out on the grounds that the homes had been built without permits.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, a restrictive planning system leaves only 13 percent of East Jerusalem zoned for Palestinian construction, much of it already built up, making Israeli-issued building permits extremely difficult for Palestinian residents to obtain.
While Israel continues to build and expand its illegal colonies, Palestinian communities and towns in occupied Jerusalem and various areas in the occupied West Bank continue to be denied the right to build homes and property under various allegations meant to prevent the expansion of Palestinian towns and neighborhoods.
All of Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention in addition to various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under International Law.
Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits collective punishment and acts of terror against civilian populations.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.
Articles 53 and 147, prohibit the destruction of civilian property and classify pillage as a war crime.
