Description

A woman from the Idriss family is comforted by a relative as they
watch Israeli diggers demolish their house in the Beit Hanina
neighborhood of east Jerusalem, Jan. 27. (AFP/Amnad Gharabli)

A man looks for salvageable items amid the rubble of a house demolished
by Israeli authorities in the Beit Hanina neighborhood of east Jerusalem, on
January 27, 2014.(AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)

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JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Israeli authorities on Monday demolished four Palestinian homes in annexed East Jerusalem that had been built without construction permits, police and residents said.

A total of 20 people lived in the four buildings, two of them located in the al-Isawiya neighborhood and two in Beit Hanina, occupants told AFP.

They had been served demolition orders because they did not have the necessary construction permits, Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri told AFP.

She added the demolitions went ahead without incident.

Earlier, a local committee official told Ma'an that Israeli forces escorted bulldozers to the al-Isawiya neighborhood at around 6 a.m. and demolished a three-floor building belonging to Abdul-Hayy Dari.

In 2013, Israel destroyed 99 buildings in annexed East Jerusalem, leaving 298 people homeless, according to United Nations humanitarian affairs agency OCHA.

Palestinians and human rights groups in the city say Israel rarely grants the permits, forcing residents to build homes without them.

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by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

[Monday Morning, January 27, 2014] Israeli soldiers invaded Al-Eesawiyya neighborhood and Beit Hanina town, in occupied Jerusalem, and demolished three Palestinian homes.

Mohammad Abu al-Hummus, of the Follow-up Committee in al-Eesawiyya, said that the soldiers demolished an under-construction building owned by Abdul-Hai Ahmad Dary. The demolished building is a 300 square/meter two-story home and a garage.

Clashes took place between local residents and the invading soldiers, who also fired concussion grenades at students heading to school in the area.

Local sources said that the soldiers surrounded the town and prevented the residents from entering or leaving it.

Soldiers also demolished a 70 square/meter home that belongs to resident Hussein Ali Nasser.

Nasser’s sister, Fatima Hussein told the Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA) that this is the second time the army has demolished her brother’s house, as it was destroyed nine years ago, under the guise of being built without a permit.

“My brother rebuilt it for his son”, she said, “To live in it after marriage…”.

The soldiers withdrew from al-Eesawiyya after demolishing the two buildings.

Last week, soldiers invaded the al-Eesawiyya, and photographed several recently built homes and buildings in the town, in preparation to demolish them.

Furthermore, soldiers invaded the al-Ashqariyya neighborhood, in Beit Hanina town, north of occupied East Jerusalem, and demolished a Palestinian house.

WAFA said that the property was inhabited by twelve members of two families who moved in after building it, two and a half years ago, and have been paying high fines, since then, for allegedly building it without a permit.

WAFA added that dozens of soldiers surrounded the property before demolishing it, and declared the area a closed military zone.

The Islamic Christian Committee for Defending Jerusalem strongly denounced the latest assaults, and said that they are part of ongoing violations against the Palestinians, their lands and property, in different parts of occupied Palestine, especially in occupied Jerusalem.

International Law expert, secretary-general of the Committee, Hanna Issa, said Israel is ongoing with its violations of International Humanitarian Law, and that the attack is a grievous violation of Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

“The basic laws of the International Criminal Law describe these attacks as war crimes”, Hanna stated, “Article Eight of this law considers the unjustified massive destruction and confiscation of property as a war crime”.