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Israel issues more demolition directives in East al-Quds

Palestinian Bedouins inspect their belongings after 12 of their tents were destroyed by Israeli army bulldozers in a desert area near Jericho on August 18, 2015. (AFP photo)

The Israeli regime has given green light for the demolition of three more Palestinian properties, including a mosque in East al-Quds (Jerusalem), Palestinian sources say. 

Majdi al-Abbasi, a Palestinian official from the Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Silwan, said on Sunday that Israeli municipality authorities also ordered the demolition of a studio apartment and a house in the area, Palestinian Ma’an news agency reported. 

The al-Qaaqaa Mosque, whose demolition Israel has ordered, was built three years ago. With a built-up area of 110 square meters, it serves 5,000 worshipers.

Earlier this week, an Israeli court ordered the demolition of a soccer field and a neighboring warehouse in Silwan.

An Israeli municipality bulldozer demolishes a soccer ground in Silwan village in East al-Quds (Jerusalem) (Ma'an Photo)

 

Silwan is one of many neighborhoods where Palestinians are being forced from their property to make room for Israeli settlements. 

On August 17, Israeli bulldozers escorted by Israeli forces demolished residential structures belonging to more than 20 families of the Jahalin Bedouin community in Khan al-Ahmar area of East al-Quds.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Israeli forces have demolished around 370 Palestinian properties in the occupied East al-Quds and the West Bank since the start of the year.

Figure by Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions showed that the Israeli regime destroyed at least 359 Palestinian structures in the West Bank last year.

In September last year, the UN urged the international community to block Israeli plans to relocate Bedouins from the West Bank. 

The international community regards all Israeli settlements built on the occupied Palestinian lands as illegal.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories in 1967.

Palestinians are seeking to create an independent state on the territories of the West Bank, East al-Quds, and the besieged Gaza Strip and are demanding that Israel withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories.


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