By Anadolu staff
JERUSALEM (AA) – Israeli forces demolished a residential apartment in the town of Silwan in occupied East Jerusalem on Wednesday, according to witnesses.
Municipal teams backed by police cited the lack of a building permit for the demolition, witnesses said.
Israel has demolished 92 Palestinian buildings in East Jerusalem since the beginning of 2024 under the pretext of “unlicensed construction,” according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Palestinian, Israeli, and international human rights organizations argue that Israeli authorities intentionally restrict Palestinian construction in East Jerusalem while intensifying building permits for Jewish-only settlements in the city.
In a similar move, Israel demolished eight Palestinian homes in the West Bank cities of Jericho, Ramallah, and Masafer on Wednesday.
At least 47 demolition operations were carried out by Israeli forces in May, affecting 66 structures, including 35 inhabited homes and 15 agricultural facilities in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, according to Palestinian figures.
International law regards both the West Bank and East Jerusalem as occupied territories and considers all Jewish settlement-building activity there illegal.
Tensions have been high across the occupied West Bank since Israel launched a deadly military offensive against the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 37,700 victims since Oct. 7.
At least 553 Palestinians have since been killed, including 133 children, and nearly 5,300 injured by Israeli army fire in the West Bank, according to the Health Ministry.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its military operation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
*Writing by Mohammad Sio