“They beat me.. I almost died,” Mahmoud Salhiya says
Occupied Jerusalem (QNN)- Israeli occupation authorities on Thursday released Mahmoud Salhiya, the Jerusalemite from Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood whom ‘Israel’ demolished his house and forcibly displaced his family yesterday, on two conditions.
On Thursday evening, Mahmoud Salhiya, his two sons, and nearly 22 supporters were released by an Israeli occupation Court on the conditions that they are now barred from entering the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood for 30 days and that each of them must pay a bail amounting 1000 Shekel ( approx. USD$400).
The conditions also include that anyone must pay a 5000 Shekel bail if he breaks the condition of being barred from entering the neighborhood.
Following his release from Israel’s Al-Mascobiya interrogation center, Mahmoud said that during his arrest, the Israeli occupation forces severely beat him.
“I almost died. I really tasted death!” Mahmoud added.
"They assaulted me. I tasted death."
Mahmoud Salhiya said following his conditional release on bail from the Israeli jails, today.
The home of Salhiya family in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood was knocked down yesterday by Israel's ethnic cleansing machinery.#SaveSheikhJarrah pic.twitter.com/L30yWjwTay— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) January 20, 2022
Yesterday, the Israeli occupation forces demolished Salhiya family house after raiding their house in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem in the early morning hours, violently arresting and assaulting the family members.
The forces arrested five of the family members, including Mahmoud, and over 22 supporters who were camping inside the property in solidarity with the family and were also assaulted.
On Monday morning, the Israeli forces also attempted to forcibly displaced the Salhiya family from its house. They raided the area and demolished five businesses Mahmoud owned.
However, Mahmoud refused to obey the order of the Israeli occupation municipality and threatened to set himself and the house on fire, in opposition to the forced displacement.
Watch | Members of the Salhiya family in the occupied #Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah refuse to obey an Israeli dispossession order and threaten to set their home on fire in the event of their expulsion. pic.twitter.com/hjYe1hCvYh
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) January 17, 2022
Hours later, the Israeli forces left the area after demolishing five businesses owned by Mahmoud.
The Salhiya family was displaced from its house in the west Jerusalem neighborhood of Ein Karem in 1948 during the ethnic cleansing of the village.
They bought a new house in the 1950s in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, over a decade before ‘Israel’ occupied and annexed the area.
Eighteen people lived on the property in two adjacent houses, including Mahmoud, his wife and children, his mother and his sister’s family. The whole family is made up of 9 children.
The family was offered by the occupation municipality an eight-month extension to convince them to sign a paper stating that they would become a tenant of the house, but they refused.
The family also said that the battle to keep its house had cost them around NIS 600,000 (about $ 190,000) in fines, the cost of filing cases and appointing lawyers.
More than 500 Palestinians living in 28 houses in the neighborhood are also threatened with forced displacement by settler organizations supported by the Israeli occupation government.
