Israeli occupation authorities continue to carry out a sweeping campaign of demolitions targeting Palestinian homes and properties in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, in a scene that reflects the ongoing policy of restriction and forced uprooting of the indigenous population, aimed at altering the demographic character of the land and imposing new facts on the ground in favour of the settlement project.
On Wednesday, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) demolished the home of Jerusalemite resident Mousa Badran in the Al-Bustan neighbourhood of Silwan, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque, after he had begun demolishing it himself days earlier to avoid the exorbitant fines imposed by the Israeli municipality on those who delay implementing demolition orders.
This demolition comes a week after the occupation authorities forced Badran to carry out the demolition himself as part of a broader policy designed to displace the residents of the Jerusalemite neighbourhood and empty it for the benefit of settlement projects and the so-called “Biblical Garden” scheme.
Residents of Silwan continue to suffer relentless pressure and repeated demolition orders under the pretext of unlicensed construction, while the occupation authorities deliberately make it near impossible for Palestinians to obtain building permits within occupied Jerusalem.
By the end of May this year, 93 buildings had been demolished in Jerusalem, including 53 homes. Across the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, more than 623 structures have been demolished since the start of the year, reflecting an unprecedented escalation in the rate of demolitions.
In the village of Al-Walaja, northwest of Bethlehem, occupation forces this morning demolished an inhabited home belonging to Ehab Sabri Radwan, located at the main entrance to the village, after cordoning off the area and barring the movement of residents and vehicles.
This house is among dozens threatened with demolition in Al-Walaja, which has for years faced an oppressive urban blockade and near-total denial of building permits, while the occupation continues to carve bypass roads and seize surrounding lands for settlement expansion around Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, in Khirbet Al-Fakhit in the Masafer Yatta area south of Hebron, Israeli forces began demolishing homes and agricultural structures, targeting the dwellings of Palestinian families who have lived there for generations.
Eyewitnesses reported that the bulldozers destroyed several houses and animal shelters amid a heavy military presence that prevented residents from approaching, causing panic among families who depend on farming and herding as their sole means of livelihood.
These demolitions form part of a long-standing policy aimed at depopulating Masafer Yatta of its indigenous inhabitants to expand nearby Israeli settlements and military bases, despite the area being designated a Palestinian nature reserve under local law and one of the most endangered zones facing forced expulsion.
The demolition and forced displacement operations constitute a blatant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from destroying property or forcibly transferring civilian populations except for temporary, imperative military reasons, and these conditions clearly do not apply to the cases unfolding in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
These practices also embody a systematic policy of discrimination, as the occupation authorities grant settlers full privileges to build and expand while besieging Palestinians with restrictions and punitive fines, effectively coercing them to abandon their lands.
The continuation of such violations deepens the housing crisis and drives ever-growing numbers of Palestinian families into homelessness, amid an international silence that borders on complicity in crimes aimed at erasing the Palestinian presence from the holy city and its surroundings.
