erases Palestinian village of Abul Ajaj from map

JORDAN VALLEY, (PIC)-- Israeli bulldozers under heavy military protection demolished Wednesday morning the village of Abul Ajaj in the northern Jordan valley region as a prelude to expanding the settlement of Metsuwah that was established on Palestinian lands.

Eyewitnesses said that more than 30 Palestinian structures belonging to the family of Al Doais were totally removed from the area, adding that the Israeli troops have imposed a military cordon on the area since the early morning hours, while the family refused to leave their hometown.

The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) had handed the residents of the village orders to evacuate their homes, which were attacked earlier more than once by extremist Jewish settlers.

In another incident, the IOF stormed in the morning of the same day the village of Bani Hassan in the Palestinian city of Salfit, and embarked on knocking down Palestinian homes and bulldozing agricultural lands.

Local sources reported that the demolitions took place in Beir Abu Ammar town, adding that the Israeli troops physically assaulted the Palestinian farmers and detained head of the municipal council Abdulkareem Rayyan.

They also said that dozens of Palestinians flocked into the town in order to stop the demolitions and clashed with the troops.

The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) had warned months ago the Palestinian owners of the lands in this town not come to their lands at the pretext they are state property and located within the area classified by Israel as C.

Citizens from the area said these demolitions were carried out in an attempt to control water resources in the area, where the settlers want to take over water wells and deprive the Palestinian villages from them.

razes Palestinian home in East Al-Quds

Maan News - AL-QUDS (AFP) -- Israeli police on Wednesday razed a Palestinian house in occupied East Jerusalem, shortly before the owner arrived home with a court order halting the demolition.

Scores of police and a single bulldozer were involved in the operation, which leveled the small house in the At-Tur neighborhood near the Mount of Olives.

House owner Abed Zablah, a father of five, showed Agence France-Presse a letter issued early Wednesday by the Jerusalem District Court ordering a halt to the demolition.

But by the time he got home with the letter, the house was already flattened, he said.

Israeli police had no immediate comment on the demolition.

Meanwhile, Israeli troops in the Jordan Valley destroyed two buildings and a tent being used by Palestinians in Massu'a, southwest of Nablus, near the border with Jordan, a military spokesman told AFP.

The buildings, which were being used to house cattle, were demolished because they had been erected illegally on public land, the spokesman said.

Permits for Palestinians to build in East Jerusalem are extremely rare, rights groups say, and Israel frequently issues demolition orders despite the sensitive nature of such operations on land the Palestinians want as capital of their future state.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognized by the rest of the world. The state considers the whole of Jerusalem its "eternal and indivisible" capital.