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According to initial information, Israeli authorities this morning demolished 5 Palestinian structures in 2 different locations in the West Bank, i.e. in East Jerusalem and Hebron Governorate in the south. As a result, 70 Palestinians, including 37 children, were negatively affected.

In At Tur in East Jerusalem, Israeli authorities demolished a recently built Palestinian building of around 500m2 containing 3 uninhabited residential units and 2 commercial units. The building, which belongs to an extended Palestinian refugee family (45 people, including 20 children), was reportedly built on privately owned land, which is zoned by the Jerusalem Municipality as a "green area". As many of you know, only around 13% of the land in East Jerusalem has been zoned by Israeli authorities for Palestinian construction, while around 35% has been zoned for Israeli settlements.

For more information on this issue, see e.g. http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_Jerusalem_FactSheet_December_2012_english.pdf.

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JERUSALEM (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces demolished several residential and commercial buildings in East Jerusalem on Wednesday, locals said.

Israeli bulldozers, accompanied by military forces, arrived in the neighborhood of At-Tur and demolished a building under construction containing three apartments, owner of the property Khamini Hamdan told Ma'an.

Three shops connected to the building were also destroyed, he added.

The buildings were destroyed under the pretext that they lacked construction permits, although Hamdan said he has been trying to obtain building permission for over 6 months.

Kayed Jaradat, a joint owner of the property, said he had obtained a court-order to suspend demolition orders on the building until May, saying that the construction cost of the property was over 600,000 shekels ($166,000).

Two nearby apartments were evacuated during the demolition, with 40 people forced to leave their homes temporarily.

Since 2004, Israel has demolished 442 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, leaving 1,746 people, including 945 children, homeless, according to B'Tselem.

Palestinian homes are usually demolished under the pretext of not having a building permit. Figures from Israeli NGO Bimkom show that 95 percent of Palestinian applications for a building permit are rejected.

Rights groups say that Israel implements a series of discriminatory practices in housing, planning, residency rights and budget allocation in East Jerusalem, with the aim of reducing the number of Palestinians living in the city.

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by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

Wednesday April 24, 2013, Israeli bulldozers of the Jerusalem City Council, accompanied by Israeli soldiers and police officers, demolished three vacant brand new apartments in Al-Hardoub neighborhood in the At-Tour town in occupied East Jerusalem. Soldiers also demolished several homes in Hebron.

The Jerusalem municipality claimed that the apartments have been built without construction permits. Each apartment is 500 square meters.

Owner of the building Kayed Mohammad Jaradat, told the Palestine New & Info Agency (WAFA) that this is the third attack of its kind, and added that his family has been living in their old home, connected to the demolished apartments, since 1997.

Jaradat added that he has been trying to obtain a permit for his constructions, and that he provided the City Council with all of the documentation and maps they asked for, but the Council never issued the needed permit.

He said that he was not informed that the Police intended to demolish his apartments until they came today to destroy them.

Jaradat further stated that the destruction of the apartments left 40 persons in the cold, and added that he has six children with special needs, in addition to three blind family members.

Palestinian Field Researcher at the Jerusalem Affairs Department of the Palestinian National Authority, Ahmad Sob-Laban, told WAFA that what Israel is doing in Jerusalem is a systematic policy that aims at removing the Palestinian population from the city.

Sob-Laban added that since Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967, it only granted the Palestinians 4000 construction permits comparing to 53.000 permits granted to Israeli settlers.

He further stated that there are nearly 20.000 Palestinian homes threatened to be demolished in East Jerusalem, and that Israel demolishes approximately 100 homes in the city each year.

In related news, the army demolished an under-construction home in Shiokh Al-Arroub town, north of the southern West Bank city of Hebron. The 150 square/meter home belongs to Ya’coub Abu An-Nawa.

The soldiers also demolished another home, and an under-construction home, that belong to resident Hazim Jawabra, in the same area, and uprooted olive trees, grapevines and fig trees, in addition to demolishing an under-construction home and walls that belong to resident Omar Younis Mheisin.