The Israeli occupation authorities on Monday demolished a four-apartment residential building in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Isawiyya, displacing four Palestinian families, including 12 children.

Palestinian news agency WAFA quoted local sources as stating that Israeli forces cordoned off the vicinity of the building, owned by the Ilayyan family, before a bulldozer tore it down, reducing it to rubble.

The demolition was carried out under the pretext of unlicensed construction.  

Fadi Ilayyan told WAFA that the Israeli municipality of West Jerusalem informed him yesterday that it is going to demolish the four-apartment building constructed 10 years ago and inhabited by his family, along with his father and two brothers, Murad and Amjad, displacing 17 members of the Ilayyan family, including 10 children.

He added that the Israeli occupation authorities pressed ahead with the demolition to punish him for his work as a guard at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, although the building was located within the master plan of the built-up area of Isawiyya.

On August 8, an Israeli court rejected an appeal to freeze the demolition order against the building, effectively banning the Ilayyan family from completing the procedures to obtain the necessary license.

Using the pretext of illegal building, Israel demolishes Palestinian houses on a regular basis to restrict Palestinian expansion in occupied Jerusalem.

At the same time, the municipality and government build tens of thousands of housing units in illegal settlements in East Jerusalem for Jews in an attempt to offset the demographic balance in favor of the Jewish settlers in the occupied city.