Renewed Nakba in Silwan: Occupation Seizes 13 Apartments, Displacing Dozens of Jerusalemites

Dozens of settlers stormed the Batan al-Hawa neighborhood in Silwan, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque, carrying out a widespread seizure operation that simultaneously affected 13 residential apartments. This operation took place under tight military protection from the occupation forces, which imposed a security cordon to secure the transfer of properties and hand over homes to the settlers.

This escalatory step comes as part of a systematic policy aimed at emptying Palestinian neighborhoods surrounding the Old City of their original inhabitants. Settlement associations, supported by occupation authorities, seek to change the demographic map through biased legal tools and brutal field force that imposes forced displacement.

Human rights and field sources documented occupation soldiers raiding the targeted homes and delivering immediate eviction notices to their residents within a few hours. Teams from the Israeli Execution and Enforcement Department were seen emptying the contents of the residential apartments and throwing them into the open, in preparation for replacing the landowners with settlers.

Jerusalemite Raafat Basbous recounted painful details of the moment his home and his father's home were stormed, where they were given only 24 hours to leave the place they had lived in for decades. Basbous affirmed that his family has resided in this neighborhood since before the occupation of Jerusalem in 1967, specifically for 63 years, considering what is happening an extension of his ancestors' Nakba.

In a harsh human scene, elderly Yousef Basbous expressed his heartbreak at losing his home, which he built 'stone by stone' since 1963. He pointed out that the occupation authorities prevent the rightful owners from entering their homes while opening the doors wide for settlers, emphasizing that this is the second time he has been displaced after the 1948 Nakba.

Eviction operations also affected 11 residential apartments belonging to the Rajabi family, with settlement associations claiming ownership of the land for Jews of Yemeni origin decades ago. Immediately after the families were removed, settlers raised Israeli flags over the rooftops of the buildings in a provocative move reflecting the extent of control.

With this new escalation, the number of apartments seized in the Batan al-Hawa neighborhood in the last four days has risen to 15 residential apartments. This frantic campaign has led to the displacement of about 80 Palestinians, including children, women, and the elderly, who are now homeless under difficult weather and political conditions.

These developments sparked a wave of widespread anger on social media platforms, where activists circulated videos documenting the cries of women and the suffering of children during their expulsion. Observers described what is happening as 'open ethnic cleansing' carried out in cold blood and in plain sight of a silent international community.

Jerusalemite activists warned that displacement operations in Silwan are no longer just individual incidents or legal disputes, but rather an accelerating path to ending the Palestinian presence. They pointed out that the occupation exploits discriminatory laws to legitimize the theft of properties and transform the area around Al-Aqsa Mosque into interconnected settlement outposts.

For its part, the human rights center 'B'Tselem' issued serious warnings about the danger of widespread displacement threatening more than 2,200 Palestinians in the Batan al-Hawa neighborhood alone. The center clarified that hundreds of children face an unknown future amid the occupation's insistence on implementing eviction decisions in favor of settlers and extremist associations.

The danger does not stop at Batan al-Hawa but extends to the adjacent Al-Bustan neighborhood, where about 1,550 people face the risk of their homes being demolished or evacuated. The occupation municipality plans to establish the so-called 'King's Garden' tourist park on the ruins of these historic homes, as part of a comprehensive Judaization project.

Field statistics indicate that the Batan al-Hawa neighborhood has lost about 15 families since the start of the aggression on Gaza on October 7, 2023. Among the families forcibly displaced are the Shahada, Ghaith, Awda, and Shuwaiki families, joining a long list of victims of continuous settlement expansion for years.

Local sources confirmed that the occupation authorities have carried out the demolition of 35 homes in the Silwan area by February 2026, with dozens of other orders pending execution. This acceleration in demolition and seizure operations reflects an Israeli desire to resolve the demographic conflict in occupied Jerusalem as quickly as possible.

Despite the pain and displacement, the residents of Silwan emphasize their right to return to their homes, asserting that the policy of uprooting people from their roots will not succeed. The cries and living testimonies of Jerusalemites remain a historical document exposing the falsehood of the occupation's legal claims and affirming the city's Arab and Islamic identity.

Indeed, the eye sheds tears and the heart grieves for our home and the home of our ancestors. We will leave under threat, but we will surely return.