JERUSALEM, 21 January 2022, (TON): Israeli police evicted the Salhiyya family from their two adjacent houses, in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in East Jerusalem early on Wednesday, and later tore down the structures, a move which UNRWA’s West Bank field office has condemned.

Staff who visited the scene on Thursday morning observed the total destruction of the property, with school bags, clothes and family photos still partially visible beneath the rubble.

The agency said “under international humanitarian law, the forcible transfer of protected persons, as well as the destruction of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons by Israel, as the occupying power, is strictly forbidden, except where such measures would be rendered absolutely necessary by imperative military reasons, or for the security of the population under occupation.”

According to UNRWA “the 15-member Salhiyya family, who include an older woman and young child, had been living in Sheikh Jarrah for nearly 40 years.”

The neigbourhood and tensions surrounding evictions, and attempted evictions, was at the heart of brutal fighting that erupted last year in Gaza, between Israel and the militant group, Hamas.