AL-QUDS (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime authorities seized 4700 square meters of Palestinian-owned land in the East Al-Quds neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in favor of the Zionist regime’s municipality’s plan of establishing a park, an activist said Monday.
Saleh Diab told WAFA that the occupying regime’s court issued a decision on Sunday that ordered the takeover of land owned by four Palestinian families.
The municipality first attempted to seize the land in 2016 but had failed at the time.
Kamal Obeidat, one of the owners, said in a telephone interview with WAFA that the decision to seize the land located near a hotel aims at increasing its area for construction from 18,000 to 36,000 square meters in favor of the regime’s municipality.
Sheikh Jarrah has been the scene of frequent crackdowns by Zionist troops on Palestinians protesting against the threatened expulsion of dozens of Palestinian families from their homes in favor of hardline Zionist settler groups.
Since the occupying regime seized East Al-Quds in the 1967 war, Zionist settler organizations have claimed ownership of land in Sheikh Jarrah and have filed multiple lawsuits to evict Palestinians from the area.
The threatened Sheikh Jarrah expulsions have also drawn international attention and sparked global outrage.
The land grab and evictions carried out by the regime authorities are seen as part of efforts to forcibly displace the Palestinians and change the demographic character of the occupied territories.
Separately on Monday, Wafa reported that Zionist troops demolished a water reservoir in the town of Khader, located south of Bethlehem.
The news agency, citing local activist Ahmad Salah, said the troops escorted a bulldozer into the Wadi al-Shami area of the town, where the heavy machinery tore down the water reservoir purportedly for being built without a permit.
The destruction of the water reservoir comes as Palestinians in the occupied territories suffer from a water shortage and Israeli authorities damage any projects that aim to solve the problem.