Occupied Jerusalem-Sana
Dozens of houses and shops were demolished by the Israeli occupation forces in Qalandia refugee camp, east of occupied Jerusalem, which is home to about 15,000 Palestinians and others threatened with demolition.
The head of the Wall and Settlement Authority, Walid Assaf, said in a statement to SANA that the occupation aims at large-scale demolitions in Qalandiya camp to separate the occupied city of Jerusalem from the north of the West Bank and prevent communication between Palestinian cities and towns, where he plans to establish ten thousand housing units on Palestinian land in the camp.
Assaf pointed out that the Palestinians in the camp are subjected to ethnic cleansing and displacement, where the occupation demolished dozens of shops located at the entrance of the camp in the past weeks and continues to attack the entrants and exits and the arrest of large numbers of them.
Settlement expert Salah al-Khawaja pointed out that the Israeli occupation forces seized thousands of dunums of agricultural land in the vicinity of Qalandia camp in order to establish a new settlement, stressing that the occupation practices ethnic cleansing against Palestinians in the camp, which is the second largest camp in the West Bank.
Al-Khawaja pointed out that Qalandia camp connects Ramallah with occupied Jerusalem from the northern side and the occupation works to displace Palestinians from it to implement his dangerous plan to completely isolate Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, where it recently demolished dozens of houses in the area of Wadi al-Homs, south of Jerusalem, and tries to displace the residents of Khan al-Ahmar east of Jerusalem, but that Confronts with Palestinian steadfastness by clinging to the land and resisting Judaization and settlement.
The Israeli occupation forces demolished dozens of commercial establishments at the entrances to Qalandiya camp and will demolish 20 Palestinian facilities in the camp in the coming days to complete a comprehensive plan for the displacement of Palestinians from the area, he said.
Occupied Jerusalem and its surrounding areas are witnessing settlement and Judaization operations with the aim of separating them from the rest of the West Bank and preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. The settlement and Judaization operations are silently met by the international community and encouraged by the US administration in violation of international resolutions, especially Security Council Resolution 2334 of 2016, which demands the occupation to stop Immediately for all settlement operations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.