JERUSALEM, Tuesday, May 15, 2019 (WAFA) -  Israeli police Wednesday morning delivered a demolition notice for a Palestinian building in the East Jerusalem refugee camp of Shufat purportedly for being built without a license.

WAFA correspondent reported that Israeli police along with so-called municipality staff stormed the UNRWA-run refugee camp, located on the northern edge of Jerusalem, and posted a demolition notice on the new building of the camp’s popular committee.

Two weeks earlier, Israeli police presented the camp’s popular committee members with demolition orders against a vocational training center and an all-purpose hall that was under construction.

Israeli forces have sharply escalated the demolitions of Palestinian property in East Jerusalem, recently prompting the United Nations (UN) to decry the alarming trend and call on Israel to immediately halt the destruction of Palestinian property.  

“Demolitions in East Jerusalem have increased at a staggering pace over the last month, leaving tens of Palestinians displaced and others who have lost their livelihoods overnight,” the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian Territories Jamie McGoldrick said in early May.

Israel has destroyed more than 100 Palestinian structures in East Jerusalem so far in 2019, with 63 demolished in April alone.

On 29 April, Israel demolished 31 buildings; the most in one day since OCHA began monitoring forced demolitions in 2009.

“As the occupying power of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Israel is obligated to ensure the welfare and well-being of the local Palestinian population," OCHA‘s James Heenan said.

“The implementation of the discriminatory Israeli zoning and planning regime cannot be invoked by Israel to justify any violation of international law," he added.

K.T./ K.F.