Occupation bulldozers demolish a home in Qalandiya north of Jerusalem and storm Al-Aqsa

After a raid that lasted for hours on the village of Qalandiya north of Jerusalem, occupation bulldozers began demolishing the home of citizen Samer Hamida (49 years old), claiming it was built without a permit in an area classified under the Oslo Accords as Area "C" (under full Israeli control, in terms of security and civil administration, including planning, construction, and exploitation of lands and natural resources).

Despite the lawyer for Hamida submitting a petition to the court to freeze the demolition and review the necessary licensing procedures to protect the home, the army ignored the petition and the bulldozers began demolishing it.

Samer's brother, Murad Hamida, said that his brother's home was built 10 years ago and has been inhabited since then; it consists of two floors, each with an area of 220 square meters, and 35 people live in it, including 15 children.

Murad explained that the occupation army surprised the family by raiding the home at exactly 9 o'clock in the morning and ordered its evacuation with the intention of demolishing it, adding, "We told the officer that we are in the process of obtaining a building permit, so he said to us, contact your lawyers."

"We have a decision from Smotrich"

Despite the lawyer submitting an urgent petition to the court and sending a copy to the family and communicating personally with the officer, the officer told Murad, "Consider it military land.. military confiscation and we have a decision from Smotrich for demolition."

The occupation army did not suffice with executing the memories and future of Samer and his family, but deliberately punished those citizens who were present to collectively show solidarity, by targeting them with sound bombs, gas, beating with batons, and spraying pepper gas, according to Hamida.

This citizen confirmed that contact has been cut off with his brother, the homeowner, since morning hours, because he refuses to leave the vicinity of his home which is undergoing demolition, and the army refuses to allow his relatives to reach him.

He summarized the description of his brother's psychological state with the phrase, "Samer is very frustrated.. God help him."

Murad concluded his talk by saying that his brother Muhammad's home is also threatened with demolition as it is located in the classified Area "C", and he received a demolition notice 15 years ago, and the family is still unable to obtain the necessary permits to protect it from demolition.

As for the citizen Sharif Awadallah, who is considered one of the oldest residents of Qalandiya village and one of the landowners threatened with eviction from their lands for the sake of settlement projects, he said that Samer's home is located in the middle of the village and not far from the facility that will be built for burning and recycling waste.

This elderly man added that dozens of families will be forcibly displaced for this project after moving the separation wall and annexing more lands to the borders of Jerusalem municipality.

Seizing more lands

Awadallah pointed to the danger of the large settlement project targeting Qalandiya lands, represented by the expansion of the "Atarot" settlement and the construction of 9,000 new settlement units on the lands of Jerusalem International Airport and the surrounding lands.

This elderly man concluded his talk by addressing the area of Qalandiya village lands amounting to 4,000 dunams (a dunam equals 1,000 square meters), its residents live on only 8,000 of them after the lands were confiscated and isolated outside the wall, and this elderly man confirms that the living space will become even narrower for the 2,000 citizens descending from Qalandiya after seizing more lands and confining them to an area not exceeding 300 dunams.

It is worth noting that at the beginning of last November, employees of the "Israel Lands Authority" raided Qalandiya village and delivered to its people two eviction orders for buildings and agricultural lands within 20 days, in preparation for starting the settlement projects targeting the village.

This step came after Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich signed in last April a decision to activate old confiscation orders that targeted Qalandiya in 1970 and 1982.

A discussion session is supposed to be held in the Planning and Construction Committee tomorrow, Wednesday, to promote the new Atarot settlement neighborhood, which will include 9,000 housing units, on the site of Jerusalem International Airport.

The plan, according to the website of the "Peace Now" organization, carries features reminiscent of the E1 plan in terms of its implications for the future of the region and the building of the Palestinian state, as the new neighborhood will be located in the heart of a densely populated Palestinian urban area, extending between Ramallah and Kafr Aqab to the north, passing through Qalandiya refugee camp, Al-Ram, Beit Hanina, and Bir Nabala.

In a related context, occupation bulldozers demolished a horse stable this morning in the town of Jabal Mukaber south of the Old City, and demolished a wedding hall under construction, and notified the demolition of other homes in Rafat village northwest of Jerusalem.

On the level of violations in Al-Aqsa Mosque, 370 settlers stormed its courtyards in the two morning and evening incursion periods, celebrating the second day of the Jewish Festival of Lights (Hanukkah).