Day 210: Jerusalem during “Al-Aqsa Flood” Operation
On the 210th day of "Al-Aqsa Flood Operation", the occupation authorities imposed restrictions on the entry of worshipers to Al-Aqsa to perform the dawn and Friday prayers, while the Qaraeen family continued to self-demolish their shops, by decision of the municipality.
The Wadi Hilweh Information Center - Jerusalem explained that the forces stationed at the gates of Al-Aqsa imposed restrictions on the entry of worshipers since dawn prayer. They prevented the entry of young men and a group of Turkish tourists, most of whom were women, and the young men performed the dawn prayer on the road to the “Yusufiya Cemetery.”
At the time of Friday prayer, the forces placed iron barriers at the entrance to the Lions Gate road leading to Al-Aqsa, and prevented dozens of young men from entering it, and assaulted some by pushing them, in addition to stopping and preventing many young men at the other gates of Al-Aqsa.
On the other hand, the Qaraeen family continued the process of self-demolishing their commercial facilities in the Wadi Hilweh neighborhood in the town of Silwan, under the pretext of building without a license.
Yassin Qaraeen explained that the family was forced to self-demolish the shops that had been in place for 35 years, after refusing any postponement or freezing of the decision, and rejecting any application for their license, “on the pretext of not being able to issue licenses in the Wadi Hilweh neighborhood.”
Qaraeen added that the municipality placed the final demolition decision in mid-February, and gave the family until the end of April to implement the demolition, and indeed the family began implementing the decision at the end of last month.
Qaraeen pointed out that the municipality imposed a “building violation fine” on them several times, and they were obligated to pay it, and they were trying to obtain a license.
Qaraeen pointed out that the area of commercial establishments is 150 square meters.
In the evening hours, the occupation authorities began placing iron barriers around the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, on the eve of Holy Saturday, and annually the forces impose restrictions on the entry of Christians into the church and limit the numbers of those permitted.
