JERUSALEM, July 7, 2025 (WAFA) – Israeli occupation forces dawn Monday demolished two dwellings and razed cultivated land near al-Eizariya town, east of the West Bank city of East Jerusalem, according to local sources.

They said that the occupation forces and officers of the so-called “Civil Administration” escorted bulldozers into the al-Mashtal area, east of the town, where the heavy machinery tore down two tin-sheet shacks belonging to two brothers from the Abu Ghalyeh family, displacing their families.

They added that the military bulldozers razed a tract of cultivated land and destroyed over 50 water storage tanks, denying vulnerable Palestinian families in the area their human right to water, given the lack of vital infrastructure and water shortages.

Al-Mashtal is one of the areas on the outskirts of Jerusalem that have become a frequent target of Israeli attacks as part of Israel’s policies to stifle the presence of and forcibly displace Palestinians to take over their land and make room for colonial construction.

The “Civil Administration” is the name Israel gives to the body administering its military occupation of the West Bank.

Soldiers in the oxymoronically named Civil Administration determine where Palestinians may live, where and when they may travel (including to other parts of the occupied territories like Gaza and East Jerusalem), whether they can build or expand homes on their land, whether they own that land at all, whether an Israeli settler can takeover that land among others.

K.F.