Conflicts & War

Palestinian family protests eviction, threatens to blow up house

Jerusalem, Jan 17 (EFE).- Members of a Palestinian family on Monday barricaded themselves in their house and threatened to set gas cylinders alight in protest of Israel plans to evict them from their property in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem.

The Salhiya family received an expulsion order that expires on Monday.

Jerusalem City Council has expropriated the land of the house, where the residents have lived since the 1950s, neighbors told Efe.

Ahead of the imminent arrival of the police to carry out the eviction, the 15-member family threatened to “blow it up” if they are forced to leave the house, diplomatic sources told Efe.

“We have been in this house since the 1950s and we have been fighting eviction for 25 years,” Abdallah Ikiramhawi, a Salhiya family member, said in a statement released by Palestinian activist groups.

“Now they are using the excuse of building a school, even though they continue to close local schools, while giving permission for settlers to build,” the statement read.

Israeli Police deployed a strong security presence to the area and cut off the streets that provide access to the house.

The Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood experienced violent rallies last year as dozens of Palestinian families faced eviction orders from houses claimed by Jewish settler organizations. EFE

sga-jma/ta

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