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Photos:
Scene. Published by Maan News
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JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli bulldozers demolished two Palestinian-owned apartments on Tuesday in the Shufat neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem.

A Ma'an reporter said that large numbers of Israeli forces and Israeli municipality staff stormed the neighborhood of Shufat escorting Israeli bulldozers and surrounded the building in which the two apartments were located.

Local sources told Ma'an that the two apartments belonged to Suleiman and Samer al-Muhtaseb family and that Israeli forces demolished them on the pretext of being built without the nearly impossible-to-obtain Israeli building permit.

Al-Muhtaseb family said that the Israeli municipality had not notified them prior to the demolition.

Nearly all Palestinian applications for building permits in Area C are denied by the Israeli authorities, forcing communities to build illegally.

Meanwhile, the estimated 550,000 Jewish Israeli settlers in the occupied Palestinian territory are more easily given building permits and allowed to expand their homes and properties, despite living in settlements that violate international law.