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Israeli forces demolish Palestinian home in Silwan

March 15, 2017 at 2:57 pm

Image of a demolished Palestinian home ordered by Israeli forces in Silwan, East Jerusalem on 15 March 2017 [maannews]

Israeli forces demolished a Palestinian home in the Silwan neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem on yesterday afternoon without prior notice, under the pretext that it was built without Israeli-issued construction permits.

Witnesses told Ma’an that forces stormed the area under heavy military and police protection and demolished a two-room home built of bricks and roofed with tin sheets owned by Muhammad Abu Salih.

Read: Israel demolishes Arab-Israeli’s home without notice

Muhammad’s father Amin Abu Salih told Ma’an that the family had not been given advanced notice  that the demolition was to take place.

According to the family, one of the rooms was built 18 years ago, and the other was added five years ago.

A spokesperson for Israel’s Jerusalem municipality could not immediately be reached for comment.

Fakhri Abu Diab, a spokesman for a local committee aiming to defend Palestinian properties in Silwan, had told Ma’an: “Israeli occupation institutions have launched an unprecedented attack against Silwan in the form of land confiscations, demolitions, and other methods, in order to apply pressure on its indigenous residents to coerce them to leave their town that abuts the Old City and Al-Aqsa Mosque, to pave the way for settlers to replace them.”