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JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces demolished an apartment building in Beit Hanina village north of Jerusalem early Tuesday morning, officials said.

Saeed Shwaiki, a member of the political bureau of the Palestinian Arab Front, told Ma'an that Israeli bulldozers demolished a house belonging to his cousin Rushdi Shwaidi in al-Ashqariya neighborhood of Beit Hanina.

Israeli forces surrounded the house at 4 a.m. and forced the family members to get out of the house during the demolition process. Dozens of residents gathered around the house, but were unable to prevent the house demolition or to stop the bulldozers.

Israeli forces also detained the owner of the residential building, Hajj Amin Shwaiki, Saeed Shwaiki added.

The residential building consists of four floors and four apartments. Each apartment is 180 square meters, and the building houses around 20 people in total, including women and children.

Israeli forces claimed that the structure was unlicensed.

The building was built 10 years ago, and the owner has previously tried to obtain a license for the building during the past few years, but was reportedly rebuffed repeatedly by authorities.

Israel has destroyed more than 500 Palestinian properties in the West Bank and mostly East Jerusalem since the beginning of this year, displacing 862 people, according to UNOCHA.

Israel rarely grants Palestinians permits to build in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. It has demolished at least 27,000 Palestinian homes and structures since occupying the West Bank in 1967, according to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.

Israeli has designated most of the West Bank as "agricultural land" and most of East Jerusalem as "open green space," so Palestinians can own land but not build on it. Israeli commissions, however, regularly rezone the land for requests to build Jewish settlements.

The internationally recognized Palestinian territories of which the West Bank and East Jerusalem form a part have been occupied by the Israeli military since 1967.

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by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

[Tuesday Morning October 29, 2013], several Israeli military jeep, and police vehicles, accompanied by bulldozers, invaded Beit Hanina, in occupied Jerusalem, and demolished an apartment building.

Local sources have reported that the building belongs to a resident in Al-Ashqariyya area, in Beit Hanina.

The owner, Amin Shweiky, said that dozens of soldiers invaded the area, declared it a closed military zone, and demolished the building without any warning.

He added that that the families were not even granted time to remove their furniture and belongings from the building.

“It seems that Nir Barkat, wanted to start his new term as mayor by avenging the lost votes”, Shweiky said, “The Palestinians in Jerusalem boycotted the election, and Barkat now wants to target the very existence of the indigenous Palestinian population.”

In related news, dozens of soldiers invaded Khirbit At-Taweel area, in the eastern suburb of Nablus in the northern part of the West Bank, and demolished a concrete water basin, in addition to two rooms.

The demolished structures belong to residents Yousef Bani Fadel, Atiyya Bani Menya, and Ata Reehan.
Khirbit Tawil, east of Aqraba town, has been subject to frequent attacks that led to the repeated destruction of homes and property.