Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes in Sur Baher neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem.

JERUSALEM, Monday, July 22, 2019 (WAFA) – Several Palestinian civilians were displaced this morning as Israeli forces began to demolish around 70 apartments in Wadi al-Hummos area of East Jerusalem’s Sur Baher neighborhood under the pretext they were built too close to Israel’s separation barrier, reported officials and activists on the scene.

Several hundred soldiers accompanied bulldozers as they raided the neighborhood early in the morning, woke people up and forced them to leave their homes in preparation to demolish them about 24 hours after the Israeli High Court gave the army the green light to proceed with the demolition of 10 buildings on both sides of the fence barrier that separates Jerusalem from Bethlehem but more so on its Jerusalem side.

The demolition is expected to displace three Palestinian families totaling 17 people, including nine children.

Witnesses said the army began tearing down four buildings and a house owned by Amira, Atrash, Abu Hamed and Kiswani families.

The arm declared the area a closed military zone and prevented people and journalists from reaching it before proceeding with the demolition.

Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), has strongly condemned the demolition saying it “constitute a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention as well as war crimes pursuant to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”

He said in a statement prior to the demolition that “Israel’s illegal policies and practices, ranging from home demolitions and forced displacement to the destruction of Palestinian livelihoods, in East Jerusalem and the rest of occupied Palestine, serve one purpose: the preservation and expansion of the Israeli colonial-settlement enterprise at the expense of Palestinian land and people,” adding, “The Palestinians have no recourse, as the Israeli judicial system has repeatedly shown its complicity in Israel’s illegal colonial-settlement enterprise. It is, therefore, the responsibility of the international community to immediately intervene to halt the demolitions in Sur Bahir and hold Israel to account for its repeated violations of international law.”

M.K.