Israeli bulldozers tore through a four-storey residential building in East Jerusalem on Monday, displacing scores of Palestinians in what was the largest demolition of its kind in the area this year, a human rights group said.
The building, in the Silwan neighbourhood near the Old City, comprised 13 residential apartments, most of which were occupied at the time of the demolition, the Israeli human rights groups Ir Amim and Bimkom said in a statement.
The demolition “was carried out without prior notice”, they said, adding that it is the “largest” demolition carried out in East Jerusalem in 2025. It is the latest in a series of buildings to be torn down as Israeli officials destroy what they describe as unauthorised structures in annexed East Jerusalem.
“This is part of an ongoing policy. This year alone, around 100 East Jerusalem families have lost their homes,” the groups said. Israeli police cordoned off surrounding roads, with security forces positioned across the area and on rooftops of neighbouring houses.
Built on privately owned Palestinian land, the block had been condemned because it lacked a permit, activists said. Palestinians face severe obstacles in obtaining building permits because of Israel's restrictive planning policies, a problem that has fuelled tension in East Jerusalem and across the occupied West Bank for years.
The building's destruction “is part of a systematic policy aimed at forcibly displacing Palestinian residents and emptying the city of its original inhabitants”, the Jerusalem governorate, affiliated with the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, said in a statement.
“Any demolition that expels residents from their homes constitutes a clear occupation plan to replace the land's owners with settlers.”
The Jerusalem municipality, which administers both West and East Jerusalem, has previously said demolitions are carried out to address illegal construction and to enable the development of infrastructure or green spaces.
In a statement, the municipality said the demolition of the building was based on a 2014 court order, and that “the land on which the structure stood is zoned for leisure and sports uses and construction, and not for residential purposes”.
Activists accuse Israeli authorities of frequently designating areas in East Jerusalem as national parks or open spaces to advance Israeli settlement interests.
