Israel evicts 11 Palestinian families in east Jerusalem

Israeli authorities evicted 11 Palestinian families from their homes in east Jerusalem on Wednesday, an AFP journalist reported, a move that settlers have increasingly used to occupy the vacated properties.

An AFP correspondent on the scene reported that civilians wearing high-visibility jackets were seen throwing mattresses, clothing, children's toys and other personal belongings of Palestinian families out of their homes.

Israeli rights group B'Tselem said Israeli forces had entered the Silwan neighbourhood to carry out the evictions.

"Large Israeli forces are currently entering the Silwan neighbourhood to evict 11 Palestinian families from their homes," B'Tselem said in a statement, accompanied by a video showing armed Israeli personnel in the area.

"Settlers brought in to carry out the evictions are throwing the families' belongings out of the windows" under the protection of Israeli forces, the statement added.

The eviction orders target residents of the hilltop neighbourhood south of Jerusalem's Old City and are based on a 1970 law that allows Jews who lost property before the establishment of Israel in 1948 to reclaim it.

Israeli authorities also rely on Ottoman era documents indicating that Jews of Yemeni origin once lived on the land and left during the Palestinian uprisings between 1929 and 1936.

B'Tselem said the eviction "marks the beginning of a large wave of displacement affecting around 2,200 people in Silwan who face imminent risk of forced displacement ... (including) 90 families (700 individuals) in Batan al-Hawa", the affected neighbourhood within Silwan.

It added that the evictions "clearly embody an Israeli policy aimed at engineering the demographic balance and Judaising the neighbourhood through the exploitation of discriminatory laws."

Israeli authorities have evicted many Palestinian families from the area in recent years, and further families await the enforcement of eviction orders.

Homes that have been vacated are often demolished or transferred to Israeli settlers, who frequently mark their presence with blue metal Stars of David, making the new occupants highly visible in east Jerusalem.

The presence of settlers in Silwan, which began in the 1980s, is considered illegal under international law.

In Silwan, hundreds of settlers live among around 50,000 Palestinians.

These homes can be identified by Israeli flags and by the surveillance cameras installed on them, as well as by the presence of exclusive nearby sports facilities surrounded by fencing.