Israeli bulldozers demolished a Palestinian house in East Jerusalem on Tuesday, prompting sharp criticism from human rights activists and world leaders.
Israeli forces evicted Mohammad Karameh and his 15-member family that had been living in the house for the past eight years in the al-Tur neighborhood, the house's owner Mohammad Karameh told Anadolu Agency (AA). He added that the Israeli authorities cited the lack of a building permit for razing the 200-square-meter (2,150-square-foot) house.
Meanwhile, nine Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli forces during the home demolition, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. There was no comment from local Israeli authorities on the demolition.
Palestinian and Israeli rights groups say the Israeli demolition policy aims to limit the presence of Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem.
Jerusalem remains at the heart of the Israel-Palestine conflict, with Palestinians hoping East Jerusalem might eventually serve as the capital of a future Palestinian state. International law regards both the West Bank and East Jerusalem as occupied territories and considers all Jewish settlement-building activity there illegal.
Turkey's Parliament Speaker Mustafa Şentop, as the term chair of the Parliamentary Union of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (PUIC), condemned the forced evictions of Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood by Israeli authorities.
In his message, Şentop said: "The policies, evictions and displacements of our Palestinian brothers and sisters that have been going on in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood since last Ramadan and that we have witnessed in other lands under Israeli occupation are against human rights and international law. We condemn the forced eviction of the Salhiyeh family members, who are struggling to live in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem," referring to last week's eviction of a Palestinian family in the flashpoint East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
The police raid was launched two days after a member of the Salhiyeh family took to the roof of the house, threatening to blow it up with gas canisters if they were forced out. Police said it was enforcing a court-approved eviction order of "illegal buildings built on grounds designated for a school for children with special needs."
A tree-lined area of sandstone homes, foreign consulates and luxury hotels, Sheikh Jarrah has become an emblem of what Palestinians regard as an Israeli campaign to force them out of East Jerusalem. The family's case has been monitored by diplomats and rights activists.
The home was located about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) north of Jerusalem's Old City walls, where clashes erupted last year between Palestinians and Jewish settlers, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"I am devastated. You see livelihoods being destroyed in front of your eyes, and now the house is gone," said one of the activists, who asked not to be identified and was part of a group that held an overnight vigil at the house.
The home had stood across from the British Consulate in East Jerusalem, which said that evictions in occupied territory, in all but the most exceptional circumstances, were against international humanitarian law. It urged the Israeli government to "cease such practices, which only serve to increase tensions on the ground."
Noting that PUIC confirmed its full support for the honorable struggle of the Palestinian people, Şentop stated that the attacks on the demographic and legal status of Jerusalem are the biggest obstacle in the search for a solution and permanent peace. Şentop urged the international community not to remain indifferent to this issue any longer.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry last week also condemned the eviction of the Salhiyeh family and other Palestinian families from their homes as contravening 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.
Israel's forced eviction of Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood sparked an 11-day war last May between the Israeli army and Palestinian factions in Gaza.
