OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)
The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) delivered on Tuesday evacuation and demolition notices for seven inhabited homes belonging to Palestinian families in the eastern neighborhood of Qalandia village, north of Jerusalem.
The orders require the residents to vacate and demolish their homes within 21 days.
The notices were issued under the pretext of “unlicensed construction,” despite the fact that the targeted homes have stood there for decades and are inhabited by families.
Last month, the IOA handed two citizens from the family of Maragha partial evacuation orders for their homes in the Silwan district’s Batn al‑Hawa neighborhood, south of the Aqsa Mosque.
The orders targeted parts of their homes and the family’s parking area, citing alleged ownership of the land by Yemenite Jews dating back to 1881.
On January 14, the IOA also delivered notices to several residents from the Rajabi and Basbous families in Batn al‑Hawa, requiring them to open files with its law enforcement and collection system authority as a prelude to carrying out eviction orders against them. These families are typically given no more than 21 days to comply.
These IOA notices target around 33 homes sheltering nearly 220 Palestinian residents, including the house of Yousef Basbous’s family, whose case remains under review by the Israeli higher court.
Settlement activity in Batn al‑Hawa has escalated. On January 5, 2026, settlers seized a house belonging to the Basbous family under heavy police protection, displacing 13 family members.
Earlier, on December 14, 2025, the IOA forced Najah Rajabi, an elderly woman, and her two sons to vacate three homes in favor of the settler group “Ateret Cohanim,” which renovated them to house three Jewish families.
On November 9, 2025, Umm Zuhri ash‑Shuweiki, her son, and the Jumaa Odeh family were also evicted. Settlers then stormed the homes and raised Israeli flags over them.
Ateret Cohanim bases its claims on alleged Yemenite Jewish ownership of property dating back to 1881, covering an area of about 5.2 dunums. These claims have placed more than 84 Palestinian families, totaling around 700 people, in direct legal confrontation with Israeli courts.
Ateret Cohanim is a government-backed Jewish group and educational institute located in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. It actively works on Judaizing the holy city and expelling its indigenous people, the Jerusalemites, from their homes.
In 2004, Ateret Cohanim embarked on extracting Israeli court decisions that enabled it to seize Palestinian homes and property and displace local families in Silwan and other neighborhoods of the holy city.
Israel’s Judaization activities started in Silwan district and its nearby areas in 1996 when the Jewish neighborhood of Ma’ale Hazeitim emerged as a small settlement on the Mount of Olives in east Jerusalem, inside the Arab neighborhood of Ras al-Amud.