Israeli police have evicted a Palestinian family from their house in an occupied area of East Jerusalem after swooping in a dawn raid.
Around a dozen officers descended on the Salhiyeh home in Sheikh Jarrah, a flash point for fighting in 2021, before demolishing the property.
Around 15 residents were dragged outside to watch their home reduced to rubble in what has been branded a ‘war crime’ by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
One family member named as Mahmoud Salhiyeh climbed to the roof on Monday in a desperate bid to defend their home, where they have lived for decades.
It sparked a tense stand off as he threatened to set both himself and the building ablaze if Israeli forces entered.
He said on Tuesday: ‘We will not flee again. We have nowhere else to go. You expelled us once already in 1948.
‘We either die in our home or we live. We are not leaving.’
They maintained a vigil inside and on top of the building until armed police arrived on Wednesday.
![CORRECTION / A member of the Israeli forces stands by the ruins of a Palestinian house they demolished, in Sheik Jarrah neighborhood on January 19, 2022. - Israeli police destroyed the home of a Palestinian family in the sensitive East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah early Wednesday morning, an AFP photographer said. Before dawn, Israeli officers went to the home of the Salhiya family, threatened with eviction since 2017 and the centre of an anti-expulsion campaign in the Palestinian Territories and abroad, according to a video posted online by the police. Shortly afterwards an AFP photographer witnessed the demolition of the house. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP) / The erroneous mention[s] appearing in the metadata of this photo by has been modified in AFP systems in the following manner: [Ahmad GHARABLI] instead of [Menahem KAHANA]. Please immediately remove the erroneous mention[s] from all your online services and delete it (them) from your servers. If you have been authorized by AFP to distribute it (them) to third parties, please ensure that the same actions are carried out by them. Failure to promptly comply with these instructions will entail liability on your part for any continued or post notification usage. Therefore we thank you very much for all your attention and prompt action. We are sorry for the inconvenience this notification may cause and remain at your disposal for any further information you may require. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/PRI_219158304.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1024)
![CORRECTION / Israeli forces escort a man on crutches away from the ruins of a Palestinian house they demolished, in Sheik Jarrah neighborhood on January 19, 2022. - Israeli police destroyed the home of a Palestinian family in the sensitive East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah early Wednesday morning, an AFP photographer said. Before dawn, Israeli officers went to the home of the Salhiya family, threatened with eviction since 2017 and the centre of an anti-expulsion campaign in the Palestinian Territories and abroad, according to a video posted online by the police. Shortly afterwards an AFP photographer witnessed the demolition of the house. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP) / The erroneous mention[s] appearing in the metadata of this photo by has been modified in AFP systems in the following manner: [Ahmad GHARABLI] instead of [Menahem KAHANA]. Please immediately remove the erroneous mention[s] from all your online services and delete it (them) from your servers. If you have been authorized by AFP to distribute it (them) to third parties, please ensure that the same actions are carried out by them. Failure to promptly comply with these instructions will entail liability on your part for any continued or post notification usage. Therefore we thank you very much for all your attention and prompt action. We are sorry for the inconvenience this notification may cause and remain at your disposal for any further information you may require. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/PRI_219158272.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1024)
Some relatives including a nine-year-old girl were beaten, The Guardian reports, amid claims police also deployed rubber bullets.
Officers are said to have detained around 25 people including five members of the Salhiyeh family.
Several people were arrested on ‘suspicion of violating a court order, violent fortification and disturbing public order.’
Israel considers the whole of Jerusalem as its capital – but Palestine claims the east of the city as the capital of a future state.
![CORRECTION / A person walks on the ruins of a Palestinian house demolished by Israeli forces, in Sheik Jarrah neighborhood on January 19, 2022. - Israeli police destroyed the home of a Palestinian family in the sensitive East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah early Wednesday morning, an AFP photographer said. Before dawn, Israeli officers went to the home of the Salhiya family, threatened with eviction since 2017 and the centre of an anti-expulsion campaign in the Palestinian Territories and abroad, according to a video posted online by the police. Shortly afterwards an AFP photographer witnessed the demolition of the house. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP) / The erroneous mention[s] appearing in the metadata of this photo by has been modified in AFP systems in the following manner: [Ahmad GHARABLI] instead of [Menahem KAHANA]. Please immediately remove the erroneous mention[s] from all your online services and delete it (them) from your servers. If you have been authorized by AFP to distribute it (them) to third parties, please ensure that the same actions are carried out by them. Failure to promptly comply with these instructions will entail liability on your part for any continued or post notification usage. Therefore we thank you very much for all your attention and prompt action. We are sorry for the inconvenience this notification may cause and remain at your disposal for any further information you may require. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/PRI_219158298.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1024)
The family had made no plans to relocate and could not be contacted by relatives.
Police insisted they had been given ‘countless opportunities’ to hand over the land following an evacuation order served in 2017.
It said authorities were enforcing a court-approved eviction order of ‘illegal buildings built on grounds designated for a school’.
An international activist who witnessed the demolition described it as ‘devastating’.
‘You see livelihoods being destroyed in front of your eyes,’ they added.
Mr Abbas has now urged Washington to ‘compel the government of the Israeli occupation to stop the policy of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people’, according to a statement published by Palestinian news agency, WAFA.
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