Turkey strongly condemned Israel's forced eviction of a Palestinian family from their home in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem.
In a statement released Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry said the decisions that lead to the eviction and displacement of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah and other parts of the occupied territories "contravene international law and human rights."
"Israel's unilateral practices, which erode the demographic and legal status of Jerusalem, undermine the vision of a two-state solution and the ground for lasting peace," it said.
Israeli forces have demolished a Palestinian house at the center of an anti-expulsion campaign in the neighborhood.
Israeli police went to the home of the Salhiyeh family before dawn, assaulted a number of its occupants and demolished their home after the forced evacuation, Walid Tayeh, the family's lawyer, told Anadolu Agency (AA).
The Salhiyeh family said they had been living in the home since 1948 after they were expelled from the Ein Karen neighborhood of West Jerusalem.
Palestinian territories, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem, have been under Israeli occupation since 1967.
Since 1956, a total of 37 Palestinian families have been living in 27 homes in East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah. The neighborhood was annexed by Israel in 1967 in a move not recognized by most of the international community.
Israeli Jewish settlers, backed by Israeli courts, have taken over houses in Sheikh Jarrah on the grounds that Jewish families lived there before fleeing during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. However, no such protection exists for Palestinians who lost their land.
