Jerusalem Governorate: The Occupation Continues Crimes of Murder and Forced Eviction in a Comprehensive War and Flagrant Violation of International Law

SadaNews - The Jerusalem Governorate deemed the escalating assaults witnessed in occupied Jerusalem, which include murder, forced evictions, demolition, and seizure of properties, as a comprehensive and systematic war targeting Palestinian existence. This falls within the framework of an accelerating Israeli plan to reshape the demographic and geographic reality in the city, taking advantage of the regional and international focus on the US-Israeli war against Iran.

In this context, the Jerusalem Governorate confirmed in a statement issued today, Wednesday, that with the martyrdom of young Qassem Amjad Shaqirat at dawn today, shot by occupation forces during their incursion into the town of Jabal Mukabber southeast of occupied Jerusalem, the number of martyrs in the Jerusalem Governorate has risen to three since the beginning of this year, namely: (martyrs Qassem Amjad Shaqirat, Murad Shweiki, and Nasrallah Mohammad Jamal Sayam), which are new crimes added to the record of ongoing violations against our people.

Concurrently, the occupation authorities continued the policy of forced eviction in the Batn al-Hawa neighborhood of Silwan, where occupying forces stormed the neighborhood and evicted 11 inhabited houses belonging to the Al-Rajbi family, home to about 65 Jerusalemites, in favor of colonial associations. They also forcibly evicted two houses belonging to the Bsoob family and arrested the young man Anas Raef Bsoob following the eviction, after having previously seized two other houses by storming them and changing their locks.

These measures extended to the village of Qalandia north of occupied Jerusalem, where on the previous day, the occupying municipality teams delivered demolition notices for seven residential buildings in the eastern neighborhood, giving citizens 21 days to evacuate them, under the pretext of building without a permit, which threatens dozens of families with forced displacement.

In a related context, the occupation continues to close the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque for the twenty-sixth consecutive day, preventing worshipers from accessing it, and imposing a tight military cordon on the Old City, isolating it from its surroundings through military barriers, in a blatant violation of freedom of worship. This has forced citizens to perform their prayers in the streets, amid an economic paralysis and disruption of daily life in the city.

The governorate affirmed that all these Israeli measures are null and void and illegal, constituting a serious violation of international humanitarian law and international legitimacy resolutions, and amounting to war crimes that require accountability.

The governorate called on Arab and international media, as well as human rights and humanitarian organizations, to shed light on what is happening in Jerusalem, to allocate spaces in their various coverage to the Jerusalem issue, and not to allow the occupation to exploit the international preoccupation to pass its plans. It also called for documenting and exposing these violations and for pressuring the international community to assume its responsibilities towards Jerusalem.