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by IMEMC News
Dec 5, 2023

Israeli forces demolished, on Sunday, a Palestinian-owned apartment, and three other citizens were forced to demolish their own homes in occupied Jerusalem.

On Sunday morning occupation municipality crews and police surrounded the home of former prisoner, Jihad Attoun, in the town of Sur Baher, southeast of occupied Jerusalem.

Police besieged the apartment building and occupied the rooftops of many buildings in the vicinity.

Municipality crews proceeded to demolish his family’s apartment located on the third floor of a residential building, under the pretext of building without a license.

The five members of the Attoun family have lived in the apartment for thirteen years and have made several attempts to obtain a license without success.

The municipality imposed a 40,000 shekel fine for not obtaining a license, although Attoun had made several attempts to do so.

It is important to note that after the October 7 aggression against the Gaza Strip, occupation authorities implemented the decision to demolish the apartment, denying the family the ability to freeze or postpone the demolition under the pretext of a “state of emergency.”

In Beit Hanina, north of occupied Jerusalem, the Israeli municipality forced two brothers, Ahmed and Khader Al-Rajabi to demolish their own homes to avoid paying the demolition fees if the occupation carried out the demolition.

The municipality imposed a 171,000 shekel fine for not having a license for the house, which consists of two apartments, one which is 100 square meters and the other is 70 square meters.

The two brothers have lived in the apartment for four years, Ahmed with his wife and three children, and Khader with his wife and five children.

The owner of the home, the father of the two men, said that he had tried to obtain a license for the house for several years before the occupation authorities ordered it to be demolished.

In Sur Baher, the Jerusalemite citizen Ayman Awwad was forced to demolish his own home, on Sunday evening, to avoid the excessive fees if the Israeli municipality carried out the demolition.

The occupation municipality ordered that the home be demolished under the pretext of building without a permit.

Awwad said that the Israeli municipality issued a decision to demolish his house in 2020, and imposed an “unlicensed building violation” fine.

The decision had been suspended until Awwad received a notice 20 days ago that the municipality will demolish the home in three weeks, compelling him to carry out the demolition himself to avoid paying for the municipality to use their crews.

In related news, Israeli forces demolished, on Monday, six Palestinian-owned agricultural structures in the town of Al-Ubaidiya, northeast of Bethlehem in the southern occupied West Bank, under the pretext of being “unlicensed”.

According to Hasan Breijiyya, the head of the Bethlehem office of the Wall & Colonization Resistance Commission, Israeli forces knocked down six agricultural rooms east of the town, near the illegal “Boaz” colonial outpost.

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