Israeli authorities on Wednesday destroyed a Palestinian building in the Shufat neighborhood of East Jerusalem, the third such home demolition in the occupied city in the last two days.
Locals told Ma’an that Israeli special forces accompanied by bulldozers raided the neighborhood and surrounded a building before almost immediately beginning to demolish it.
At the same time, local residents and journalists on the scene were prevented from approaching the area.
Sources told Ma’an that the Israeli authorities claimed the demolition was related to “security purposes” and was carried out because the structure was constructed without a license.
Local Walid Bishara told Ma’an that the building belonged to the Bishara, Mukheimar and al-Mashni families and that it was built a year and a half ago.
Bishara added that after the building was completed, Israel prevented the families from moving into it and then issued the demolition order.
“They ordered us to seal the building until we get a license in order to make sure it did not get demolished.”
“We sealed the building and did not use it for any purpose,” he told Ma’an. “We worked on getting a license issued but we did get initial approval, but several Israeli courts ruled to demolish the building because of security reasons and the latest ruling was issued by the Israeli central court.”
The building consisted of two floors with four apartments in total and it cost 500,000 shekels to build ($127,000), in addition to more than $40,000 (158,000 shekels) that the families paid to get the licenses and to delay the demolition orders
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