On Monday, Israeli bulldozers tore through a four-story building in east Jerusalem, leaving many Palestinian residents without a place to go after police enforcing quick evictions knocked down their doors in the middle of the night.
The building was the most recent in a string of residential buildings to be demolished as Israeli authorities target what they claim to be unauthorized construction in the occupied east of the city. Local Palestinian leaders have described this operation as a “systematic policy” to drive out inhabitants.
“Everyone who lives in the building is devastated by the demolition,” Eid Shawar told AFP. The building, which housed about 100 people many of them women, children, and senior citizens was situated in the Silwan neighborhood close to the Old City and consisted of twelve flats.
Shawar, a father of five, stated, “They broke down the door while we were asleep and told us we could only change our clothes and take essential papers and documents.” Shawar, 38, claimed his family of seven would have to sleep in his car since they had nowhere else to go. One woman bemoaned, “They are destroying my bedroom,” as she observed the large machineries tearing into the structure.
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