Israeli forces destroy six homes near Jerusalem

Israeli authorities on Thursday demolished six homes near Jerusalem, leaving 51 Palestinians homeless and bringing the year's total displaced in the West Bank and East Jerusalem up to 752.

A Ma'an reporter said that Israeli civil administration workers raided the Sheikh Anbar neighborhood in Zuayyim village without prior notice and demolished a number of structures belonging to the al-Saidi, al-Jahalin, and Abu al-Hawa families that authorities claimed were built without a permit.

The structures included five homes and three cattle sheds.

Khader al-Saidi, one of the newly-displaced residents, said that authorities demolished the homes with bulldozers without allowing the families to remove their possession.

This led to an exchange of insults and hand scuffles between residents and Israeli forces, he added. 

Al-Saidi said that his family had lived in the area since the 1950s, and that they had bought the three dunam piece of land the structures were built on 10 years ago.

"Five years ago (the family) built residential structures and cattle-raising structures," in the area, he said, adding that civil administration bulldozers had destroyed the family's structures three times in the last two years.