Alwaght-Israeli regime forces have demolished two more Palestinian homes in the occupied East al-Quds (Jerusalem) leaving 23 Palestinians homeless.
During the Tuesday morning incident, houses, belonging to the Tutanji and Ghanim families, were demolished.
Tutanji told reporters that that excavators, escorted by a group of Israeli regime troops, stormed the area in the morning and demolished the houses.
He told Ma’an news agency that the only prior notice the family was given before the demolition was in the form of masked Israeli soldiers breaking into their homes and hurriedly evacuating the families, without giving them enough time to put on clothes.
According to Tutanji, 16 people, including five children, had been residing in his family’s house for the past 18 years. Meanwhile, seven members of the Ghanim family had been living in the other now demolished house for two years.
East Al Quds was seized by Israel along with the West Bank in 1967 during the Six-Day War, and since then, the Israeli government has undertaken a policy of "Judaization" across the city, constructing Jewish settlements and demolishing Palestinian homes.
There are an upwards of 500,000 Israeli settlers living in illegal settlements across the West Bank and East al-Quds, in contravention to international law.
Last month United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon slammed Israel’s illegal settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian lands and said Tel Aviv’s land grab polices are an obstacle to peace.
“I once again reiterate that settlements are illegal under international law and undermine” efforts to find a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Ban told the Security Council in a regular briefing.
The UN chief further expressed concerns over demolitions of Palestinian homes by Israel as well as ongoing violence in the occupied West Bank and said peace seems “more distant” than ever under the current circumstances.
“The creation of new facts on the ground through demolitions and settlement building raises questions about whether Israel’s ultimate goal is in fact to drive Palestinians out of certain parts of the West Bank, thereby undermining any prospect of transition to a viable Palestinian state,” Ban said.
The UN chief also slammed the ongoing punitive demolitions of homes belonging to families of Palestinians, who allegedly attack Israelis, as an internationally-banned form of collective punishment.
