Israeli forces on Wednesday destroyed the home of a Palestinian family in Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem.
Salhiya house, home for 18 people in two adjacent houses, were razed down in the middle of the night with the help of a large convey of Israeli forces.
The whole family is made up of 9 children.
Yasmin Salhiya, a resident of the house and daughter of the owner Mahmoud Salhiya, said that the large Israeli force had cut off electricity from the house as they raided it, and started firing tear gas to block everyone’s vision, reports Quds News Network.
The forces then attacked the family and arrested five of its members, including Mahmoud. Among the assaulted were a nine-year-old daughter and a woman.
The forces then started emptying the house and then started firing rubber-coated metal bullets at journalists and supporters who were outside the house.
Hours later, the Israeli forces left the area after demolishing five businesses owned by Mahmoud. Videos shared online shows an ambulance being blocked from reaching the site.
According to reports, the Salhiya family was displaced from its house in the west Jerusalem neighbourhood of Ein Karem in 1948 during the ethnic cleansing of the village. They bought a new house in the 1950s in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, over a decade before ‘Israel’ occupied and annexed the area.
The family was offered by the occupation municipality an eight-month extension to convince them to sign a paper stating that they would become a tenant of the house, but they refused.
More than 500 Palestinians living in 28 houses in the neighbourhood are also threatened with forced displacement by settler organizations supported by the Israeli government.
