Israel occupation marks 66th anniversary of the Nakba by razing more Palestinian homes

On the 66th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, or disaster, the Israeli occupation authorities destroyed a number of Palestinian properties in the occupied city of Jerusalem.

Palestinian resident Um Amin Shqirat told the local news agency Quds Net that she returned from the clinic to find the Israeli bulldozers razing her 140m-house, where a 12-member family lived.

Um Amin explained that they had lived in their house for only one year. During that year, the Israeli occupation authorities handed them a demolition order for erecting an unlicensed building.

While walking amongst the rubble searching for personal documents and lost money, she said: “The Israeli municipality has been attempting to expel us for a long time. We applied for a building licence several times, but the Israeli occupation authorities always denied our applications.”

Meanwhile, the occupation authorities destroyed the 55m-shop store belonging to Musa Al-Natsheh from Al-Ashqariyeh neighbourhood in Beit Hanina.

Al-Natsheh told Quds Net that the Israeli occupation authorities encircled his house and his store, which are adjacent to each other, and then started the demolition. He noted that they demolished the store under the pretext of it being built without permission.

In Sho’fat, the occupation authorities also destroyed a commercial shop owned by Mohamed Awadallah, who said that the walls of his shop were more than 80 years old.

Awadallah provided to Quds Net aerial images as well as documents issued by official Israeli departments proving the age of the building. Four years ago, he installed an aluminium ceiling for his shop, which was deemed illegal and he was forced to pay a NIS 20,000 fine for violating the law.

He added that he had even dismantled the ceiling after a demand by the Israeli occupation authorities, but that was useless. “The authorities violently broke into the neighbourhood, obliged my family to leave the house and started the demolition,” he said.

At the same time, the occupation authorities destroyed an aluminium workshop in the Rasul-Amoud neighbourhood. The 100m-workshop belonged to Sifyan Jaber.

“The workshop was built 14 years ago,” Jaber said, “and the Israeli bulldozers razed it without providing any warning.”

Jaber said that his losses were estimated to be more than NIS 110,000. He said that the workshop supported the livelihood of about 20 persons.