AL-QUDS (Dispatches) – Fierce clashes broke out between Palestinians and Israeli police in the flashpoint neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in the occupied East al-Quds on Sunday, after a far-right Zionist lawmaker opened an office on land belonging to a Palestinian family.
On Sunday morning, Israeli settlers stormed the neighborhood ahead of the reopening, setting up a tent on the Salem family land, who are facing imminent expulsion, and clashed with residents and supporters, injuring 73-year-old owner Fatima Salem.
Settlers scuffled with the residents and used pepper spray, as chairs were hurled by both sides, before Israeli police stepped in to push Palestinian crowds back.
Lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir joined the settlers in the tent where he reopened his office, claiming that they were “the landlords”.
Ben-Gvir is head of the Jewish Power party, part of the Religious Zionism political alliance that calls for the eviction of Palestinians from their lands and running the occupying regime of Israel according to distorted Torah texts.
On Saturday, he announced his intention to reopen his office in Sheikh Jarrah on a plot of land belonging to the Salem family that was confiscated by settler groups last month.
Following the announcement, dozens of settlers raided the neighborhood just after midnight, pelting stones at Palestinian homes and damaging cars.
Settlers then reached the house of the Salem family and assaulted women and children with pepper spray, residents told Anadolu agency.
“They came out of nowhere and pepper-sprayed me and my neighbor Abu Muhammad. My eyes were burning and I couldn’t open them. I couldn’t breathe,” Fatima Salem said.
Zionist forces used rubber-coated steel bullets, stun grenades and
tear gas to disperse Palestinians in the ensuing confrontations, according to Palestinian media.
At least 16 residents were injured, an ambulance service told local media. Six Palestinians were arrested.
The Salem family has been fighting for decades in courts against settler claims over their home.
In 1987, Fatima Salem was ordered by an Israeli court to vacate the house on claims that she couldn’t prove her residence there before the death of her parents. Salem says she was born in the house and has lived there since.
She now lives in the house with her son and daughter and their families.
The court order is based on a claim by settler group Nahalat Shimon, who has been active in pursuing eviction orders against Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
On January 21, settlers accompanied by Zionist forces seized a plot of land owned by the Salems, adjacent to the home.
Last week, authorities informed the Salems that they have until March 1 to leave the house.
Currently, 37 Palestinian families live in Sheikh Jarrah, six of them facing imminent eviction. Since 2020, Zionist courts have ordered the eviction of 13 Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah.
The area became a focal point of protest and sit-in solidarity activities last year, drawing in Palestinian and anti-occupation Israeli and international activists.
Hamas spokesman Muhammad Hamadeh said the eviction and the attack “amounts to a clear violation and is playing with fire”.
“We warn the occupation of the consequences of continuing these attacks, which are similar to playing with explosives that will only explode in their own face,” he said.
He called on Palestinian people across the entire occupied territories, especially the holy city of Al-Quds, to “mobilize” in support of their fellow countrymen in the face of the “savage occupiers” and “cowardly settlers”.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned the Sunday eviction as a “provocative step,” saying it threatens to inflame an already tense situation in the occupied Palestinian territories.
“What is happening in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood is an official Israeli consolidation of Israelization and Judaization of the Holy City that threatens to change its existing historical, legal and demographic status to serve the narratives of the occupation and its colonial interests,” the ministry said in a statement.
More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Al-Quds.
All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law as they are built on occupied land. The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.