Israel demolishes Jerusalem building, displacing dozens of Palestinians
Israeli bulldozers on Tuesday demolished a five-story residential building in annexed east Jerusalem which was home to about 70 people, in a move the local Palestinian authority said was aimed at "forcible transfer".
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who gleefully oversaw the demolition, said the building had been constructed without a permit.
"I love hearing this noise. We demolish what is illegal," Ben Gvir said in a video posted on X, which showed him inside the cab of one of the bulldozers.
Densely populated east Jerusalem faces a severe housing crisis, with thousands of homes built without permits, which its Palestinian residents say are near impossible to obtain from Israeli authorities.
The Jerusalem Governorate, the Palestinian local authority for the area, condemned Tuesday's demolition which it said was "a dangerous escalation in the policy of home demolitions and forcible transfer... and the imposition of a new demographic and urban reality".
Hanine Hreibat, a teacher and mother of four who was renting one of the 10 apartments in the building, said a large Israeli police force arrived in the At-Tur neighborhood in the early hours of the morning, accompanied by three bulldozers.
They stormed the apartments and gave residents 10 minutes to leave, she said.
Hreibat told AFP she had woken up to the sound of her husband shouting at the police, asking them not to enter the bedroom where she was, adding she had endured "five minutes of terror, with weapons pointed at our heads".
She said police officers had allowed her to take only medicine, money, her handbag and ID card.
Among the rubble, residents collected gas cylinders and filled plastic bags with clothes they had managed to pull out from the huge mound of debris.
Hreibat said she had nowhere to go following the demolition.
"We'll look for a second home. Today we're at my in-laws' and tomorrow at my parents'," she said.
Residents confirmed to AFP that they had received a demolition notice on Monday, but did not know when it would be carried out.
Israel regularly carries out demolitions of what it says are illegal structures built by Palestinians in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.
Israel captured east Jerusalem in 1967, later annexing it and declaring it part of its undivided capital, a move not recognized by the U.N. or most of the international community.
More than 360,000 Palestinians live in east Jerusalem as well as some 230,000 Israelis.
Palestinians aspire to make it the capital of a future Palestinian state, while Israel regards the entire city as its "unified and indivisible" capital.
Source: Agence France Presse
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