ISRAELI forces opened fire with rubber bullets and tear gas as they stormed the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Silwan yesterday before starting to demolish Palestinian homes.

During the onslaught, calls were made through the loudspeakers of local mosques calling for people to mobilise and defend their homes. 

Earlier this month the Jerusalem municipality issued a series of demolition orders to 13 families in the al-Bustan area of Silwan.

Residents were first warned in 2005 that 90 homes faced destruction because they had been illegally constructed, according to the authority.

The land is set to be handed to an Israeli settler organisation which wants to turn the Palestinian land into a national park and for their homes to be demolished to make way for a road linking it to the City of David area.

A court gave the residents 21 days to evacuate and demolish their homes themselves. Failure to do so would result in the municipality destroying them, with the families paying the demolition costs.

Palestine’s Foreign Ministry said it was dismayed at international inaction over the forced dispossessions.

“The mass forcible displacement of families of Silwan, Sheikh Jarrah and other areas is emblematic of Israel’s colonial regime, under which the crimes of apartheid and persecutions are committed.

“Israel’s impunity and criminality are untenable,” it said in a statement.