Eight Palestinians were injured from attacks by Israeli forces who were delivering house demolition orders in the Al-Bustan neighborhood in East Jerusalem on Wednesday.

A Palestinian resident of Al-Bustan with the demolition order hours after the Israeli police destroyed his house – Photo by Katherine Orwell

The Israeli police had come to the area to hand out five new demolition orders, on top of the 90 already existing demolition orders.

Residents that wanted to confront the Israeli police were dispersed with the use of tear gas.The police also seized the ID card of a member of the Al-Bustan Committee, a popular organization that aims to peacefully oppose the house demolitions in the area.

The Al-Bustan neighborhood is part of the Silwan area, close to the Old City of Jerusalem. The Israeli authorities want to demolish the neighborhood to make way for a controversial park. Israel has been doing archeological excavations in the area to prove that the ancient city of David once stood there. Palestinians feel that the motivations behind this are political and that it is part of the covert strategy to transfer all Palestinians out of Jerusalem.

Israeli authorities state the houses were built without building permits. Building permits are rarely issued to Palestinians and some of the structures were built before Israel came to occupy and annex East-Jerusalem in 1967.