Landslide puts 40 houses at risk of collapsing in the neighbourhood of Ein Al-Lozeh in Silwan
Landslide occurred in the neighbourhood of Ein Al-Lozeh in Silwan on Friday and the cracks and landslides expanded in the neighbourhood of Wadi Hilweh due to the accumulation of snow that fell on the Palestinian lands.
Wadi Hilweh Information Center-Silwan said in a statement that the winter season (i.e. rain and snow) will reveal the extent of damage caused by the Israeli excavations in the area. The Center explained that the most serious collapse occurred on Friday in Hosh Abu Tayeh in the neighbourhood of Ein Al-Lozeh. Hani Abu Tayeh explained to the Information Center that this is the first time a collapse occurs in this area and it is because the occupation’s municipality carried out a large excavations operation to build a supporting wall which is necessary in the area and which they actually built half of it eight months ago but didn’t finish it because of a budgeting issue as they claim, Abu Tayeh said: “the occupation’s municipality doesn’t recognize the importance of people’s lives, they are responsible for this collapse and we request the finishing of the supporting wall.” The Information Center pointed out that the Hosh contains more than 40 houses where dozens of citizens live in which most of them are children. These houses are at risk of collapsing because of the expansion of landslide towards them. The residents have been working around the hour to prevent anybody from getting close to that area since it is very dangerous; note that the height of the slope is 12 meters. The Center also explained that they formed a staff including several volunteers from the neighbourhood and opened an alternative road to the one that collapsed in order to be used for emergency cases. A staff from the Center checked on a number of houses and streets in the town of Silwan especially where Israeli excavations exist and noticed the expansion of cracks and landslide in the main street of Wadi Hilweh in addition to the occurrence of cracks in several houses in the neighbourhood; note that the collapses occur the most in Wadi Hilweh due to the Israeli excavations underneath the neighbourhood in order to continue digging the tunnels to connect Al-Ein area with the courtyard of Dung Gate and onto the Wailing Wall. The Information Center helped locals of Silwan by contacting the group of volunteers who helped the locals clean out the water from their houses at times when the Jerusalem municipality didn’t bother to offer any of its services to locals of East Jerusalem.
