'Ethnic cleansing': Israel evicts 11 Palestinian families from Jerusalem neighbourhood
Israeli forces have entered the neighbourhood of Silwan in occupied East Jerusalem to evict 11 Palestinians families from their homes.
According to locals and rights groups, 13 Palestinian apartments were seized in Silwan on Wednesday.
Police escorted Israeli settlers from the Ateret Cohanim organisation - who advocate settlement in Palestinian neighbourhoods of Jerusalem - into the Batn al-Hawa area of Silwan.
Video footage showed settlers throwing furniture out of apartment windows and raising the Israeli flag above the buildings.
According to Israeli rights group B'tselem, around 2,200 people in Silwan are facing the imminent threat of forced displacement.
"The ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem is happening now! Large Israeli forces entered the Silwan neighborhood today, 25 March, to evict 11 Palestinian families from their homes," the group wrote on Instagram.
They said the Israeli government was using the distraction of the war on Iran to relocate more settlers into territory in Palestinian areas captured in 1967, including East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
"This is the reality of systematic, institutionalized violence and a clear manifestation of an Israeli policy aimed at engineering the demographic balance and 'Judaizing' the neighborhood by exploiting discriminatory laws," wrote B'tselem.
"These measures are designed to expand Israeli presence and control over one of the most politically and religiously sensitive areas in the region, serving as a crucial component of the broader ethnic cleansing currently unfolding across the West Bank."
West Bank settler rampages
Elsewhere in the occupied Palestinian territories, dozens of Israeli settlers have been on the rampage, torching cars and houses belonging to Palestinian residents of the West Bank.
Video footage dated to Saturday showed buildings on fire in the villages of Jalud, Fandaqumiya, Silat ad-Dhahr and Qaryut, with residents scrambling to try to evacuate those inside.
The Israeli army reported on Sunday a spate of arson attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank the previous night.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said three people were injured after being beaten by settlers in the village of Jalud. Six others were injured in similar assaults in villages near Jenin.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa said several Palestinians were injured in the attacks. No arrests have been made.
This article was sourced from Middle East Eye.
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