Israel issues 40 demolition and stop-work orders in East Jerusalem

Israeli authorities have issued 40 demolition and stop-work orders in the Wadi al-Hummus neighbourhood southeast of occupied Jerusalem over the past two days, according to a statement released Thursday by the Jerusalem Governorate.

The governorate said that 30 demolition orders were delivered on Wednesday to buildings located outside the separation wall, despite the fact that the structures lie within Area A and hold official Palestinian building permits.

On Thursday, four additional demolition notices were issued inside the wall in areas classified as A and B, along with six stop-work orders in Area C.

The governorate condemned the measures as “a dangerous and deliberate escalation,” describing them as part of “a systematic policy to uproot Jerusalemites from their land.”

The statement noted that Wadi al-Hummus covers roughly 4,500 dunams, of which 2,000 dunams have been seized near the entrances to the separation wall. Israel has also imposed a 250-meter “buffer zone” on both sides of the wall, based on a 2011 military order reactivated in 2015, which the governorate says is used to justify demolition operations.

It added that Israeli authorities “facilitate the construction of thousands of settlement units while denying Jerusalemites building permits, demolishing their homes, and halting their projects,” calling the policy “a war crime and a crime against humanity.”

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