Israel escalates violations in East Jerusalem, demolishes 36 facilities, confiscates more lands

Israeli occupation authorities have escalated violations and attacks against Palestinians and their properties in occupied East Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque during January.

During the first month of 2025, occupation forces razed or forced owners to demolish 36 facilities in the city.

The demolition orders targeted 19 residential facilities, 12 commercial and agricultural facilities, and four land and road levelling operations, in addition to the demolition of Al-Taqwa Mosque in the town of Sur Baher.

The majority of demolished buildings were in the Silwan neighbourhood followed by Jabal Mukaber, Hizma, Al-Jib, Mikhmas, Al-Issawiya and Al-Walaja.

On 28 January, Israeli occupation forces killed 15-year-old Adam Sab Laba from the town of Kafr Aqab in East Jerusalem near the Qalandia checkpoint.

A total of 5,386 settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque in January, performing Talmudic rituals including a ritual known as “epic prostration”.

The Israeli occupation’s courts issued 28 prison sentences, including nine administrative detention orders and 19 prison terms against Jerusalemites.

During the same period, an Israeli court sentenced Jerusalemite preacher Issam Amireh from Sur Baher to 34 months in jail on charges of “incitement” and issued two deportation orders including a three-day expulsion order against Jerusalemite Bilal Burqan and a six- months renewed expulsion order against Khadija Khweis from the occupied West Bank.

Eighteen families from the Batn Al-Hawa neighbourhood were also issued evacuation notices.

Report: Israel issued 400 deportation orders against Jerusalemites in 2024

Occupation authorities discussed and approved eight major settlement projects in the city of Jerusalem in January, most notably; establishing a Jewish religious school and student housing in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, designating recreational, sports and community areas serving settlers as well as building 9,000 settlement units in the Atarot settlement near Kafr Aqab in East Jerusalem.

The Israeli occupation government has also approved a plan to establish illegal 1,100 settlement units near Sharafat, and a settlement park on the lands of Beit Safafa and Sharafat with an area of ​​25 dunams as well as starting construction of the main street of the Silicon Valley project in the Wadi Al-Joz neighbourhood and developing the industrial zone in the Givat Shaul settlement on the lands of Deir Yassin with an area of ​​15 dunams.

The Israeli occupation authorities have also issued confiscation orders for more than 15 dunums around the Al-Zaim checkpoint, and ordered the confiscation of more than 262 dunums in Jaba, Al-Ram, Kafr Aqab and Mikhmas for the benefit of settlement Road 45.

As many as 61 Jerusalemite prisoners including seven women and 11 children were freed in January as part of the prisoner swap deal between Tel Aviv and Hamas.