The Israeli municipality of West Jerusalem today demolished three houses in the Wadi al-Joz neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem under the pretext of construction without a permit.

Local sources told WAFA that military reinforcements from the occupation forces stormed the neighborhood, imposed a military cordon on the area, and ordered the residents of the two houses belonging to the Totah family, which house 20 people, to evacuate them in preparation for their demolition.

Yahya Totah, owner of one of the houses, told WAFA that the Israeli municipality had demolished a number of the family’s homes in the same area since 2015.

He explained that they made many attempts to license these houses, which were built 25 years ago, but the municipality refuses to do so.

Palestinians say they are forced to build without a permit to accommodate their growing family because the Israeli municipality, which spearheads the construction of thousands of housing units for Jewish settlers on usurped Palestinian land discriminates against them and refuses to issue building permits.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency