Seventy-seven Palestinian-owned buildings have been destroyed since the far-right government led by Benjamin Netanyahu took office, according to UN figures.
The figure is almost double the number of demolitions carried out by Israel in the same period last year. Ministers such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich publicly advocate for the expulsion of the Palestinians and the demolition of their homes.
During February alone, observers reported that Israeli occupation forces demolished or gave demolition orders to 187 Palestinian structures in the occupied territories.
Observers point out that the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians did not end in 1948 with the establishment of the state of Israel; it is ongoing.
The Israeli-run municipality in occupied Jerusalem on Tuesday demolished two Palestinian-owned apartments because they had no building permits. The building belonged to a Palestinian man and his sister in the Sur Baher neighborhood south of the occupied holy city. Each apartment was 90 square meters in size.
The Israeli occupation has demolished hundreds of houses on the grounds that they lack Israeli construction and renovation permits.
However, obtaining building permits is extremely difficult and very expensive for the Palestinians; they are rarely issued by the professional authorities. As families grow, therefore, Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem must extend their homes or build new homes without permits.
In addition, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that 145 people in East Jerusalem, half of whom were children, had been displaced by demolitions this year.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980, a move never recognized by the international community.
International law regards both the West Bank and East Jerusalem as Occupied Territories and considers all Jewish settlement building activities there to be illegal.
READ: Israel separates two Palestinian apartments in occupied Jerusalem
