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Israeli Demolition Levels Silwan Apartment Block, Displacing About 100 Residents

Officials say a 2014 court order under non-residential zoning dictated the move.

Overview

  • Bulldozers tore down a four-storey building in Silwan’s Wadi Qaddum containing roughly 12–13 apartments, leaving about 100 Palestinians without homes.
  • The Jerusalem Municipality said the action enforced a 2014 court order, adding the site is zoned for leisure and sports uses rather than housing.
  • Police cordoned nearby streets and used stun grenades and tear gas during the operation, with a young man and a teenage boy detained.
  • Israeli NGOs Ir Amim and Bimkom said there was no prior notice despite a meeting planned the same day to discuss legalising the structure, calling it the largest East Jerusalem demolition of 2025.
  • Palestinian officials called the move part of a systematic displacement policy, as it follows the security cabinet’s approval to recognise 19 additional settlements in the West Bank.