LONDON: Two Palestinian families in occupied East Jerusalem were forced to demolish their homes on Sunday to avoid steep financial penalties, and possibly imprisonment, that the Israeli regime had threatened for allegedly building without permits.
The Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem governorate said the Quraan family was forced to demolish their home in the Jabal Al-Mukabbir neighborhood on Sunday.
The Halawani family also demolished their residential building, comprising six housing units, in Beit Hanina, north of Jerusalem. As a result, 30 individuals, including children, have been left homeless.
The families were forced to demolish their homes because they would have had to pay thousands of dollars for the Israeli regime to do so.
Israel regularly denies Palestinians building permits, while illegally expanding Jewish settlements in the city and the occupied West Bank.
