On Monday, Israeli occupation forces carried out a wave of demolitions targeting Palestinian homes and structures across the occupied West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem.
In Qalqilia, in the northern occupied West Bank, a two-story house belonging to Bashar Tayyem was demolished in the village of al-Funduq, east of the city.
The home, approximately 200 square meters in size, was destroyed under the pretext of lacking a building permit.
In the village of Marj Ghazal near Jericho, in the northeastern West Bank, the army razed two Palestinian homes: a two-story residence belonging to Nadim Abu Jaber and his family, and a newly built single-story home owned by his brother Nour, who was recently married. Each floor spanned roughly 150 square meters.
|Israeli Forces Demolish Two Homes Near Jericho|
In occupied Jerusalem, two Palestinian families were forced to demolish their own homes under threat of heavy fines.
In al-‘Isawiya, Taher Dirbas was compelled to carry out a self-demolition. In Silwan, south of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Mohammad al-Salaymeh was forced to demolish his 100-square-meter home in the Wadi Qaddum neighborhood, which housed him, his parents, and two brothers.
The family complied to avoid a punitive fine of nearly 80,000 shekels had the demolition been carried out by municipal crews.
Silwan, located just one kilometer south of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, is home to tens of thousands of Palestinians who face the threat of forced displacement due to Israel’s ongoing campaign of Judaization and colonial expansion.
The town, which dates back over 5,000 years and formed the original nucleus of Jerusalem, is often referred to as the “Guardian of Jerusalem” for its protective arc along the southern edge of the Old City.
Since its occupation in 1967, half of Silwan’s neighborhoods have been placed under demolition threat. Israeli authorities claim the area sits atop the ruins of the so-called “City of David”—a pretext used to justify the seizure of Palestinian homes, lands, and properties for the benefit of illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers.
These policies violate international law and form part of a systematic effort to erase Palestinian presence from Jerusalem.
|Jerusalemite Palestinian Forced to Demolish His Home|
Israeli authorities routinely compel Palestinian residents of occupied Jerusalem to demolish their own homes under the pretext of lacking permits.
Those who refuse face forced demolition by municipal bulldozers and steep financial penalties.
The Jerusalem municipality systematically denies Palestinians building permits, enforcing policies that violate international law and basic human rights, including the right to housing.
These measures form part of a broader strategy to forcibly displace Palestinians from the city while expanding illegal paramilitary Israeli colonies in and around Jerusalem.
In addition, Israeli occupation authorities issued demolition and stop-construction orders targeting Palestinian homes in the town of al-Za’im, east of occupied Jerusalem.
In a report, the Jerusalem Governorate, 15 homes in the al-Sa’idi residential cluster received formal notices.
Several were warned that demolition would be carried out within three days, under the pretext that the area is designated as a “firing zone,” used by the Israeli occupation army during training.
In Deir Ballout, west of Salfit in the central occupied West Bank, Israeli occupation forces destroyed an agricultural room owned by Hamada Abdul-Wahab Abdullah, citing construction in Area C.
In Furush Beit Dajan, east of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank, Israeli forces stormed the village with a bulldozer and demolished the single-story home of Ismail Sadeq Ismail, measuring approximately 100 square meters.
The house was inhabited, and the family was forcibly evicted before the demolition. According to village council head Azem Haj Mohammed, over 90% of homes in Furush Beit Dajan face demolition orders, and many have already been destroyed.
Between October 7, 2023, and October 5, 2025, Israeli authorities carried out 1,014 demolition attacks across the occupied West Bank and occupied Jerusalem, targeting 3,679 structures.
These included 1,288 inhabited homes, 244 uninhabited homes, and 962 agricultural and other facilities. During the same period, 1,667 demolition orders were issued against Palestinian properties.
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.
