JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel razed several buildings, including an inhabited Palestinian home, in eastern Jerusalem.
Tuesday’s demolition, including the home in the Beit Hanina neighborhood, were the first in eastern Jerusalem in eight months.
The inhabited house, home to a family of seven, was built without a city permit, Jerusalem municipality officials told Reuters. Four other uninhabited homes in the Jabel Mukaber and Issawiya neighborhoods, as well as a partially built factory, also were demolished.
Israel’s previous demolitions of eastern Jerusalem homes were condemned internationally. In recent months, the Obama administration has called on Israel not to demolish Palestinian homes built without a permit. The Netanyahu government has kept Jerusalem from razing homes in an effort to move peace talks with the Palestinians forward and to prevent a showdown with the Obama administration.
The demolitions come a day after a Jerusalem municipal committee approved the construction of 32 homes in the eastern Jerusalem Jewish neighborhood of Pisgat Zeev, part of a reported development of 250 housing units.
