Israel forces Palestinian family to demolish homes

The Israeli regime has forced a Palestinian family of 12 members, including six children, to demolish their two apartments in East Jerusalem al-Quds.

According to a report by Ma’an news agency, the regime left no choice for the family of Abd al-Latif Jaabis but to raze to the ground the homes in Jabal al-Mukabbir neighborhood on Sunday in accordance with an Israeli court order.

In August, the Jerusalem al-Quds District Court ordered the demolition of the apartments claiming that they had not been constructed with proper permits, the report added.

According to Jaabis, the father of the family, the Jerusalem municipality had told them to destroy the apartments themselves or they had to pay an additional fee to Israeli demolition groups, a customary practice imposed by Tel Aviv on Palestinians regarding home demolitions in the Jerusalem district.

Jaabis further said they had built the two apartments ten years ago, one belonging to him and one to his father and brother. He added that for years they also tried in vain to get permission for the homes, paying more than 13,000 dollars in the process.

The occupied West Bank has seen an unprecedented rise in the demolition of Palestinian homes this year, with the number of buildings destroyed in the first half of 2016 already standing well beyond the total number of demolitions carried out in all of 2015.

According to a United Nations report, Israel has made over 1,383 Palestinians homeless since January as a result of demolitions in the occupied territories, compared to 688 Palestinians internally displaced during the entire 2015.

Israeli authorities rarely issue home-building permits for Palestinians, forcing many to build homes without granting the so-called permits.

The Israeli regime has sped up the demolition of Palestinian homes. On the other hand, according to Americans for Peace Now, the number of Israeli settlements has grown dramatically over the past 20 years, with the construction of 11,000 new settler units authorized under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Over half a million Israelis live in more than 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem al-Quds.

All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. Tel Aviv has defied calls to stop the expansion of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

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