IOA demolishes tent of evicted family in Sheikh Jarrah

IOA demolishes tent of evicted family in Sheikh Jarrah

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Palestinian local sources reported Wednesday that a large number of Israeli policemen and civil servants tore down violently the tent of Al-Gaoui family and confiscated its contents in the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in east Jerusalem.

The family was living in the tent after the Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) forcibly evicted them from their home in the neighborhood and gave the house to settlers.

In the morning, the Israeli policemen surrounded the tent where a female member of the Gaoui family was preparing breakfast while holding her two-year-old daughter.

Supported by only a few people who were present in the area at this time, she tried to gather at least some of the family’s belongings and verbally protested the violent destruction of their only shelter as the police tore the tent down and confiscated everything that was left.

A few mattresses and bedding were thrown in a pile on the pavement, while the tent and other belongings were loaded on a truck. Within minutes, after the police left, the family with the help from the neighbors erected another tent, providing at least minimum shelter for them.

By the time the Israeli police completed the demolition, a group of about 80 activists, journalists and Palestinians arrived, along with a group of UN workers and members of the European parliament, to express solidarity with the evicted family. Then, the Israeli police returned and issued a warning over a loudspeaker that anyone who does not leave the area within five minutes will be arrested,. They ripped down the newly erected tent, loaded it on a truck and left the area.

The Jewish extremists who seized the house of Gaoui family have waged several attacks on the citizens of the neighborhood; attacks which Israeli police and soldiers have witnessed, but did not intervene until the Palestinian victims and other residents began to defend themselves. Among the victims over the past week are children and women.

In the context of the daily Israeli violations committed against Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank, fanatic Israeli settlers set fire at an early hour Thursday to an old Palestinian house in the old city of Jerusalem and tried to prevent Palestinian firemen from reaching the scene to extinguish the fire.

In the village of Asira, south of Nablus, Palestinian local sources said that dozens of Israeli settlers form Yitzhar settlement hurled stones last night at homes and encircled the house of a Palestinian citizen called Jamal Yousuf, but the villagers confronted the attackers who escaped.

The sources added that the Israeli troops who stormed the village at that time stayed idly watching the settlers waging their attack on homes.

The Israeli occupation forces, for their part, kidnapped at dawn Thursday two Palestinian citizens in the village of Nabi Elias in Qalqiliya and the village of Beit Ula in Al-Khalil.

They also stormed the town of Jaba in Jenin, set up checkpoints, searched passengers and patrolled the streets and alleys of the town.

A Palestinian citizen from Al-Khalil was reportedly wounded on Wednesday after Israeli troops physically assaulted him as he was passing by the Container fence separating the western and central parts of the West Bank.

In the town of Beit Ummar, north of Al-Khalil, the IOA prevented Palestinian farmers from cultivating their agricultural lands in Khalat Al-Kutlah area, near the settlement of Karmi Tsur.

It was also reported that the Israel troops kidnapped at dawn Wednesday a Palestinian young man in Al-Khalil after storming and ransacking his home.

They also provided protection for Israeli settlers of Kiryat Arba near Al-Khalil, who gathered in a Palestinian land owned by Jaber family with the intention of seizing it.