Haifa - Saba:
At dawn on Monday, Israeli authorities demolished a house in the coastal town of Jisr al-Zarqa, near the city of Haifa in the 1948 territories, on the pretext of unlicensed construction.
According to the Palestinian WAFA News Agency, the demolished house had been inhabited for more than thirty years. The residents were forcibly stormed and the family was evicted, amidst a state of panic and tension, accompanied by a violent assault on the homeowner.
The neighborhood witnessed a large-scale cordon by Israeli police, who arrived in large numbers to provide protection for the demolition bulldozers and prevent residents from approaching or protesting.
This step comes within the context of a systematic policy pursued by Israeli authorities against the residents of Jisr al-Zarqa, the only remaining Arab coastal town on the Mediterranean coast.
Its residents suffer from a systematic urban, social, and economic siege aimed at restricting their movement and forcing them to migrate. Natural expansion is prevented, and all planning and development attempts are obstructed. Building permits are also refused, forcing many residents to build without permits to secure shelter for their families.
This policy is not limited to Jisr al-Zarqa alone; it is part of an escalating wave of home demolitions in Palestinian towns inside Israel, under the pretext of unlicensed construction.
On Sunday, Israeli occupation forces demolished two buildings containing several apartments in the al-Jawarish neighborhood of Ramla, on the grounds of unlicensed construction. The demolition occurred after raiding the homes and forcing residents to evacuate.
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