‘Israel’ forces 6-member Palestinian family to self-demolish house in occupied Jerusalem

Occupied Jerusalem (QNN)- Israeli occupation authorities on Monday forced a 6-member Palestinian family to self-demolish its own house in the neighborhood of Beer Ayoub in Silwan in the occupied city of Jerusalem.

At the order of the Israeli occupation municipality, Jerusalemite Baha’a Zaytoun self-demolished his own house in Beer Ayoub to avoid paying an additional fine in exorbitant demolition costs to the Israeli municipality if it carried out the demolition.

Zaytoun said he received a demolition order one week ago by the Israeli occupation municipality, under the pretext of building without a permit.

Zaytoun added that he was forced to carry out the demolition himself to avoid paying an additional fine in exorbitant demolition costs to the Israeli municipality.

Zaytoun, a father of four, said his family has been living in the house for four years and they now have no place to live in.

Last week, Israeli occupation forces raided the neighborhood of Beer Ayoub, escorted bulldozers, and started dismantling and demolishing the house of another family member, under the pretext of lacking an Israeli-issued construction permit.

Using the pretext of illegal building, ‘Israel’ demolishes houses and structures on a regular basis to restrict Palestinian expansion in occupied Jerusalem.

At the same time, the Israeli occupation municipality and the occupation government built tens of thousands of housing units in illegal settlements in occupied Jerusalem for Jews with a goal to offset the demographic balance in favour of the Israeli settlers in the occupied city.

‘Israel’ has been moving settlers into the occupied Jerusalem neighbourhoods since the 1980s. This has resulted in numerous human rights violations, including the forced displacement of Palestinian residents and house demolitions.

Hundreds of Palestinian families are being threatened with forced displacement and house demolitions by illegal settler groups, fully supported by the Israeli government.

There are nearly 700,000 Israeli settlers living in 256 illegal settlements and outposts scattered across the occupied West Bank, including the eastern part of occupied Jerusalem. Israeli settlements are illegal under international law.