JERUSALEM, Tuesday, June 02, 2020 (WAFA) – West Jerusalem’s Israeli municipality today demolished six under-construction structures in Jabal al-Mukabber neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem, according to their owner, Mohammad Za’atra.

He told WAFA that two municipality bulldozers demolished the 250-square-meter structures he started to build two months ago under the pretext they were built without a permit.

He said that he was not previously informed of a court order allowing the demolition of his buildings but that a police officer handed him the court ruling only this morning just before proceeding with the demolition.

Za’atra said he planned to use three of the structures as shops and one as an apartment for his family.

Meanwhile, the West Jerusalem municipality demolished a house in Silwan neighborhood under the pretext of building without a permit, according to local sources, who said that the demolition left Ahmad Abu Diab and his family, including five children, homeless.

Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem say they are forced to build without permit because the Israeli municipality rarely issues permits to the city’s Palestinian citizens as a way to reduce their number by forcing them to leave it and find accommodation and work elsewhere.

K.T./M.K.