Jerusalem, Jan 17 (AFP\/APP):Israeli police were in a standoff Monday with a Palestinian man who carried a gas canister onto the roof of his home in a Jerusalem flashpoint district as his family faced eviction.<\/p>\n
Israeli media reported that Mohammed Salhiya had threatened to set himself on fire if the eviction order from Sheikh Jarrah area of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem was carried out.<\/p>\n
Salhiya’s family has been facing an eviction threat since 2017, when the land where his home sits was allocated for school construction.<\/p>\n
Police and the Jerusalem municipality said in a joint statement delegates went to the home early Monday to carry out an eviction order after the Salhiyas ignored “countless opportunities” to vacate the land as ordered.<\/p>\n
“We’ve been in this home since the 1950s,” said Salhiya family member Abdallah Ikermawi from the roof of the home.<\/p>\n
“We don’t have anywhere to go,” he said in quotes provided by the Sheikh Jarrah Committee organisation, adding that the family was made up of 15 people, including children.<\/p>\n
An 11-day Gaza war between Israel and the Palestinians erupted last year, fuelled by anger in Sheikh Jarrah where families battled eviction orders.<\/p>\n
Police said their “negotiators” were at the Salhiya home after several residents of the house “began to fortify themselves with a gas canister and other flammable material”.<\/p>\n
Witnesses told AFP that clashes between security forces and locals erupted after the police arrived but later eased.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of Palestinians are facing evictions from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah and other east Jerusalem neighbourhoods.<\/p>\n
Circumstances surrounding the evictions threats vary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jerusalem, Jan 17 (AFP\/APP):Israeli police were in a standoff Monday with a Palestinian man who carried a gas canister onto the roof of his home in a Jerusalem flashpoint district as his family faced eviction. Israeli media reported that Mohammed Salhiya had threatened to set […]<\/p>\n
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