JERUSALEM/RAMALLAH, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Israeli forces began demolishing a number of Palestinian homes in the outskirts of East Jerusalem on Monday morning, despite Palestinian protest and international criticism.
Hundreds of Israeli troops and police officers accompanied by bulldozers arrived before dawn at the Wadi al-Hummos area in Sur Baher, a Palestinian neighborhood between East Jerusalem and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Israel argues that the buildings are located too close to the separation wall, a military barrier built by Israel around the West Bank.
On Monday morning, a spokesman with the paramilitary Israeli Border Police told Xinhua that demolition of 12 buildings has begun.
International and local activists were mobilized to the area and documented the demolitions. Live broadcast on Israeli channels showed massive construction vehicles razing a two-story building and then digging through the ruins.
Three families with 17 individuals, including nine children, will be displaced by the demolitions, according to a statement by the Palestinian Authority (PA).
The PA condemned the demolitions as illegal and a war crime.
Secretary-General of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Saeb Erekat slammed the move. In a statement issued on his behalf, he urged the International Criminal Court to open a judicial investigation into the case.
On Sunday, after years of legal battles between the residents and Israeli authorities, the Israeli Supreme Court approved the demolitions.
The demolitions follow an order by the Israeli Defense Ministry to destroy about 70 apartments in Sur Baher, charging the constructions are too close to the barrier, "pose a security risk" and without permits.
But the residents say they have received construction permits from the PA.
According to the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Israel has approved only 1.5 percent of the overall construction building permits requested by Palestinians.
Sur Baher, a Palestinian neighborhood on the southeastern outskirts of East Jerusalem, was captured and has been occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War.
The Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future independent state, while Israel wants all Jerusalem to be its eternal capital.
Israel annexed East Jerusalem in the 1967 war and declared the entire city as its eternal indivisible capital in 1980, a move that has never been recognized by most of the international community.
