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Israeli demolitions rip through Palestinian area of Jerusalem

Israeli demolitions rip through Palestinian area of Jerusalem
An excavator of the Israeli forces demolishes a house belonging to the Palestinian Abu Diab family in the al-Bustan neighbourhood of the Arab town of Silwan in Israel-annexed east Jerusalem on December 16, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 18 December 2024

Israeli demolitions rip through Palestinian area of Jerusalem

Israeli demolitions rip through Palestinian area of Jerusalem
  • The status of Jerusalem remains one of the most contentious issues in the Israel-Palestinian conflict

JERUSALEM: Tired and sad, Palestinian activist Fakhri Abu Diab stood amid the rubble of his home in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, just a narrow valley away from the famed domes of the Old City.
In early November, bulldozers from the Israeli-controlled Jerusalem municipality tore down his house in the Silwan neighborhood for a second time, citing unauthorized construction.
“They want to expel us from the area,” said the 62-year-old, who has organized protests against the demolitions in Silwan’s Al-Bustan area.
The destruction of homes built without permits — which campaigners say are nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain due to Israel’s restrictive planning policy — has roiled east Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied West Bank for years.
Abu Diab’s house was among around 115 Palestinian residential properties marked for demolition by the Jerusalem municipality, which controls both the city’s Jewish-majority western part and its Palestinian-majority east, occupied by Israel since 1967.
“They want to erase our presence and drive us out,” Abu Diab told AFP.
“But we will stay in Al-Bustan, even in a tent or under a tree.”
The municipality says it aims to address “illegal construction, allow the construction of proper infrastructure and new public buildings for the neighborhood’s residents,” as well as to create green space.
But Israeli rights group Ir Amim said Israeli authorities often abuse the designation of areas in east Jerusalem as national parks or open spaces.
The group, fighting against demolitions, said the practice is “designed to suppress” Palestinian development “while enabling the seizure of their lands for Israeli interests.”

The status of Jerusalem remains one of the most contentious issues in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Israel conquered east Jerusalem, including the Old City, in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, and swiftly annexed the area.
Silwan begins at the foot of the Old City walls where the Bible says the City of David was located, after the Israelite king conquered Jerusalem from the Jebusites.
Today, hundreds of Israeli settlers live among nearly 50,000 Palestinians in Silwan.
The settlers’ homes are distinguished by Israeli flags flying from rooftops and windows as well as ubiquitous security cameras.
Meanwhile, Palestinians in east Jerusalem face a housing crisis, unable to build without permits amid a rapidly growing population.
Abu Diab’s house was first demolished in February. He rebuilt it, but it was destroyed again in November.
“This time, they wore me out,” he said, visibly exhausted.
“The original house was built in the 1950s. I was born, raised, married and raised my children here.”
But now, Abu Diab said that “even my children had to rent outside Silwan.”
Now, next to his flattened home, Abu Diab lives in a caravan, which is also under threat of demolition.
He and some of his neighbors rejected an offer from the municipality to relocate to another Palestinian neighborhood in northern Jerusalem.
Near the ruins of Abu Diab’s home, 42-year-old day laborer Omar Al-Ruwaidi sat by a fire with his son, surrounded by the rubble of his own demolished home and those of four of his brothers.
“About 30 people, including 12 children, are now homeless,” he said, his voice heavy with exhaustion.
“We’ve been battling this in court since 2004 and have spent tens of thousands (of Israeli shekels), but to no avail,” said Ruwaidi.
Several families who received demolition orders declined to speak to AFP, citing a fear of retribution.

According to Ir Amim, demolitions in east Jerusalem have surged to unprecedented levels since the start of the Gaza war, which was sparked by a surprise Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Between January and November 2024, 154 homes were demolished across the area, the group said.
On November 13, bulldozers destroyed the Al-Bustan Association community center, whose director said it served 1,500 Palestinian residents, mostly teenagers.
“The association provided various services to its members, including skill-building, capacity enhancement as well as sports and cultural training,” said director Qutaiba Ouda.
“It was a safe haven and a cultural lifeline in a neighborhood with no community centers.”
Ouda lamented the loss, saying that the Israeli authorities did not just destroy a building, but “our memories, dreams and hard work.”
Following the demolition, France, which had supported activities at the association, demanded an explanation from Israel.
Kinda Baraka, 15, was among those who frequented the association.
“It was our safe space,” she said.
“When it was destroyed, I cried a lot. It felt like they could come and demolish my home next.”
Baraka said she believed the demolitions aimed to push out Palestinians in favor of settlers.
Ruwaidi echoed those fears, but remained defiant.
“We will not leave Silwan. Outside Silwan, we cannot breathe,” he said.


Iranians told to use less water as heatwave worsens shortages

Iranians told to use less water as heatwave worsens shortages
Updated 21 sec ago

Iranians told to use less water as heatwave worsens shortages

Iranians told to use less water as heatwave worsens shortages
  • Iranian authorities have urged residents to limit water consumption as the country grapples with severe shortages amid an ongoing heatwave, local media said Sunday
TEHRAN: Iranian authorities have urged residents to limit water consumption as the country grapples with severe shortages amid an ongoing heatwave, local media said Sunday.
Water scarcity is a major issue in Iran, particularly in arid provinces in the country’s south, with shortages blamed on mismanagement and overexploitation of underground resources as well as the growing impact of climate change.
On Saturday, the national meteorological service said Iran was experiencing its hottest week of the year so far, with temperatures exceeding 50C in some areas.
“People should conserve water to avoid drops in pressure,” said Tehran city council chair Mehdi Chamran, according to the ISNA news agency.
Authorities across Iran have issued similar appeals in recent days, asking residents in several provinces to limit water usage.
Tehran’s provincial water management company called to reduce usage by “at least 20 percent” to help ease the shortages.
In a statement, it said that “the reservoirs of the dams supplying water to Tehran are currently at their lowest level in a century” following years of steady decline in rainfall.
Javan, a conservative newspaper, reported on Saturday that authorities had reduced water pressure in parts of the capital in a bid to mitigate the crisis, resulting in “water outages lasting between 12 and 18 hours” in some areas.

Egypt uncovers Brotherhood-linked plot to target security and economic facilities: ministry

Egypt uncovers Brotherhood-linked plot to target security and economic facilities: ministry
Updated 2 min 13 sec ago

Egypt uncovers Brotherhood-linked plot to target security and economic facilities: ministry

Egypt uncovers Brotherhood-linked plot to target security and economic facilities: ministry

CAIRO: The Egyptian interior ministry on Sunday said it has uncovered a plot by the armed wing of the Muslim Brotherhood group aiming to target security and economic facilities.

According to a press statement by Egypt’s Interior Ministry, elements who plotted the attacks were linked to the so-called Hasm Movement, which was affiliated with the banned Muslim Brotherhood.

It also said Hasm plotted to push one of its fugitive members to infiltrate the country via a border state in order to commit “hostile operations targeting security and economic facilities in Egypt.”

The statement said Egypt’s National Security sector was able to identify the Hasm leaders behind the plan.

The group was also labelled as a terrorist entity in both the United Kingdom and the United States.


Israel orders civilians out of central Gaza ahead of new campaign

Israel orders civilians out of central Gaza ahead of new campaign
Updated 20 July 2025

Israel orders civilians out of central Gaza ahead of new campaign

Israel orders civilians out of central Gaza ahead of new campaign
  • The military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X that residents and displaced Palestinians sheltering in the Deir el-Balah area should evacuate immediately

GAZA: The Israeli military on Sunday issued an evacuation order for Palestinians in the central Gaza Strip, warning of imminent action against Hamas militants in an area “where it has not operated before.”
The military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X that residents and displaced Palestinians sheltering in the Deir el-Balah area should evacuate immediately.
Israel was “expanding its activities” around Deir el-Balah, including “in an area where it has not operated before,” Adraee said, telling Palestinians to “move south toward the Al-Mawasi area” on the Mediterranean coast “for your safety.”
Most of Gaza’s population of more than two million people have been displaced at least once during the war, which is now in its 22nd month, with repeated Israeli evacuation calls covering large parts of the coastal territory.
The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in January that more than 80 percent of the Gaza Strip was under unrevoked Israeli evacuation orders.
Families of hostages held in Gaza since October 7, 2023 said they feared the expansion of the Israeli offensive could harm their loved ones.
In a statement released by a campaign group, they called for Israeli authorities to “urgently explain to Israeli citizens and families what the fighting plan is and how exactly it protects the abductees who are still in Gaza.”
On the ground, Gaza’s civil defense agency told AFP on Sunday that Israeli strikes overnight killed at least seven people in Gaza City and in parts of the territory’s south.
Delegations from Israel and militant group Hamas have spent the last two weeks in indirect talks for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza and the release of 10 living hostages.
Of the 251 hostages taken during in 2023, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
Families rallied in Israel’s economic hub of Tel Aviv on Saturday, calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump to secure the return of the captives and end the war.
Meanwhile a military statement said Israeli forces had stepped up ground operations in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza, killing “dozens of terrorists” and dismantling “hundreds of terrorist infrastructure.”
“Underground terror tunnels” in the area stretching 2.7 kilometers (just over 1.5 miles) some 20 meters underground were located and dismantled, it said.
Israeli’s military offensive on Gaza has killed at least 58,765 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry.


‘No life without water’: settler attacks threaten West Bank communities

‘No life without water’: settler attacks threaten West Bank communities
Updated 20 July 2025

‘No life without water’: settler attacks threaten West Bank communities

‘No life without water’: settler attacks threaten West Bank communities
  • Israeli settlers recently attacked the system of wells, pumps and pipelines of the Ein Samiyah spring
  • The damage to Ein Samiyah’s water facilities was not an isolated incident

KAFR MALIK, Palestinian Territories: From his monitoring station on a remote hill in the occupied West Bank, water operator Subhil Olayan keeps watch over a lifeline for Palestinians, the Ein Samiyah spring.

So when Israeli settlers recently attacked the system of wells, pumps and pipelines he oversees, he knew the stakes.

“There is no life without water, of course,” he said, following the attack which temporarily cut off the water supply to nearby villages.

The spring, which feeds the pumping station, is the main or backup water source for some 110,000 people, according to the Palestinian company that manages it – making it one of the most vital in the West Bank, where water is in chronic short supply.

The attack is one of several recent incidents in which settlers have been accused of damaging, diverting or seizing control of Palestinian water sources.

“The settlers came and the first thing they did was break the pipeline. And when the pipeline is broken, we automatically have to stop pumping” water to nearby villages, some of which exclusively rely on the Ein Samiyah spring.

“The water just goes into the dirt, into the ground,” Olayan said, adding that workers immediately fixed the damage to resume water supply.

Just two days after the latest attack, Israeli settlers – some of them armed – splashed in pools just below the spring, while Olayan monitored water pressure and cameras from a distance.

His software showed normal pressure in the pipes pulling water from the wells and the large pipe carrying water up the hill to his village of Kafr Malik.

But he said maintenance teams dared not venture down to the pumping station out of fear for their safety.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, deadly settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have become commonplace.

Last week, settlers beat a 20-year-old dual US citizen to death in the nearby village of Sinjil, prompting US ambassador Mike Huckabee to urge Israel to “aggressively investigate” the killing.

Issa Qassis, chairman on the board of the Jerusalem Water Undertaking, which manages the Ein Samiyah spring, said he viewed the attacks as a tool for Israeli land grabs and annexation.

“When you restrict water supply in certain areas, people simply move where water is available,” he said at a press conference.

“So in a plan to move people to other lands, water is the best and fastest way,” he said.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, several Israeli politicians and officials have become increasingly vocal in support of annexing the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.

Most prominent among them is Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, himself a settler, who said in November that 2025 would be the year Israel applies its sovereignty over the Palestinian territory.

Qassis accused Israel’s government of supporting settler attacks such as the one on Ein Samiyah.

The Israeli army said that soldiers were not aware of the incident in which pipes were damaged, “and therefore were unable to prevent it.”

The damage to Ein Samiyah’s water facilities was not an isolated incident.

In recent months, settlers in the nearby Jordan Valley took control of the Al-Auja spring by diverting its water from upstream, said Farhan Ghawanmeh, a representative of the Ras Ein Al Auja community.

He said two other springs in the area had also recently been taken over.

In Dura Al-Qaraa, another West Bank village that uses the Ein Samiyah spring as a back-up water source, residents are also concerned about increasingly long droughts and the way Israel regulates their water rights.

“For years now, no one has been planting because the water levels have decreased,” said Rafeaa Qasim, a member of the village council, citing lower rainfall causing the land to be “basically abandoned.”

Qasim said that though water shortages in the village have existed for 30 years, residents’ hands are tied in the face of this challenge.

“We have no options; digging a well is not allowed,” despite the presence of local water springs, he said, pointing to a well project that the UN and World Bank rejected due to Israeli law prohibiting drilling in the area.

The lands chosen for drilling sit in the West Bank’s Area C, which covers more than 60 percent of the territory and is under full Israeli control.

Israeli NGO B’Tselem reported in 2023 that the legal system led to sharp disparities in water access within the West Bank between Palestinians and Israelis.

Whereas nearly all residents of Israel and Israeli settlements have running water every day, only 36 percent of West Bank Palestinians do, the report said.

In Dura Al-Qaraa, Qasim fears for the future.

“Each year, the water decreases and the crisis grows – it’s not getting better, it’s getting worse.”


Syria interior ministry says Sweida clashes have ‘halted’

Syria interior ministry says Sweida clashes have ‘halted’
Updated 20 July 2025

Syria interior ministry says Sweida clashes have ‘halted’

Syria interior ministry says Sweida clashes have ‘halted’
  • Violence between the Druze and Bedouin groups that began on July 13 has left an estimated 940 dead

DAMASCUS: Tribal fighters have been evacuated from Syria’s southern city of Sweida and violent clashes have ceased, the country’s interior ministry said late Saturday.

“After intensive efforts by the Ministry of Interior to implement the ceasefire agreement, following the deployment of its forces in the northern and western regions of Sweida Governorate, the city of Sweida was evacuated of all tribal fighters, and clashes within the city’s neighborhoods were halted,” interior ministry spokesman Noureddine Al-Baba said in a post on Telegram.

In Washington, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on the Syrian government’s security forces to prevent “jihadists from entering and ”carrying out massacres“ in the conflict-stricken south of the country.

”If authorities in Damascus want to preserve any chance of achieving a unified, inclusive and peaceful Syria... they must help end this calamity by using their security forces to prevent Daesh and any other violent terrorists from entering the area and carrying out massacres,“ Rubio said in a statement posted to X.

Sectarian clashes between armed Bedouin forces and the Druze in the community’s Sweida heartland had drawn in Syria’s Islamist-led government, Israel and other armed tribes.

US-brokered negotiations have sought to avert further Israeli military intervention, with Syrian forces agreeing to withdraw from the region.

“The US has remained heavily involved over the last three days with Israel, Jordan and authorities in Damascus on the horrifying & dangerous developments in southern Syria,” Rubio said.

He called for the Syrian government to “hold accountable and bring to justice anyone guilty of atrocities including those in their own ranks.”

“Furthermore the fighting between Druze and Bedouin groups inside the perimeter must also stop immediately,” Rubio added.

Once in control of large swathes of Syria, the Daesh was territorially defeated in Syria in 2019 largely due to the efforts of Kurdish-led forces supported by an international coalition.

Violence between the Druze and Bedouin groups that began on July 13 has left an estimated 940 dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor.

The count included 326 Druze fighters and 262 Druze civilians, 165 of whom were summarily executed, according to the Observatory.

The monitor also included 312 government security personnel and 21 Sunni Bedouin in the toll.