UNRWA supports residents of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and arrests a Hamas leader in the West Bank

Philip Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), visited Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem, where he was briefed on the situation of Palestinian families threatened with expulsion by the occupation authorities, while the occupation forces carried out arrests last night and at dawn today in the West Bank. It included 19 Palestinians, including the leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), Jamal al-Taweel.

Lazzarini met with a number of representatives of the residents of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood to get acquainted with their humanitarian conditions, especially in light of the siege imposed by the occupation forces on the neighborhood for more than 3 weeks, in addition to listening to their demands.

The UN official expressed UNRWA's support for the eight Palestinian families who are threatened with eviction from the neighborhood adjacent to Al-Aqsa Mosque. Lazzarini added that evacuating people from their homes "contradicts international humanitarian law", and that "UNRWA seeks to guarantee the rights of Palestinian families in the neighborhood."

Prior to the arrival of the UNRWA Commissioner-General, the occupation forces opened some checkpoints and allowed all media outlets to enter without any obstacles, in contrast to the recent restrictions on the work of journalists covering the Jerusalem neighborhood.

UNRWA and Jordan

Al-Jazeera correspondent in the neighborhood, Guevara Al-Budairi, stated that the residents of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood explained to the UN official the nature of the threatened homes, and that UNRWA, in cooperation with Jordan, had housed Palestinian families who were displaced in the year of the Nakba (1948) in the Jerusalem neighborhood.

Residents of the neighborhood demand that UNRWA play its role, and intervene in cooperation with the Jordanian authorities in order to establish the ownership of homes for their owners, who are 28 Palestinian families.

The residents of the neighborhood also explained to Commissioner General Lazzarini how settlers seized the home of a Palestinian family in the neighborhood, and the residents say that they are calling for the neighborhood to be considered a refugee camp by UNRWA, and to pressure the countries of the world to force the occupation authorities to cancel the decision to deport Palestinian families, considering that the issue Humanitarian policy and not legal in the Israeli courts.

Residents of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood also demand firefighting equipment because settlers threaten them via WhatsApp message and other social media sites by attacking and burning their homes.

The residents of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood have filed lawsuits in the Israeli courts since 1972, after settlement associations claimed that they own the neighborhood’s land, but the neighborhood’s residents have proven, with Turkish and Jordanian official documents, that this land is not for settlement associations.

West Bank arrests

On the other hand, the occupation forces arrested last night and dawn today 19 citizens, including two boys, from the West Bank.

A statement by the prisoners' affairs institutions said that the arrest campaigns were concentrated in the governorates of Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Nablus and Tulkarm, adding that the detainees were transferred to detention centers for interrogation.

Earlier on Tuesday evening, a special force of the occupation army arrested the leader of the Hamas movement, the liberated captive Jamal Al-Taweel from Umm Al-Sharait neighborhood in Ramallah and Al-Bireh governorate.

Eyewitnesses said that an occupying army force stormed the neighborhood with a civilian vehicle, and arrested Al-Taweel near his house, and took him to an unknown destination.

The occupation army had raided Al-Taweel's house in the city of Al-Bireh several times in the past few days in search of him.

Prisoners Information Office: A special force of the occupation arrests the young man, Jasser Abu Hamada, from Balata camp, while he was working in Deir Sharaf area, west of Nablus

— Safa Agency (@SafaPs) June 1, 2021

Israel released Jamal Al-Taweel from its prisons on the seventh of last March after an administrative detention that lasted 8 months, knowing that he spent nearly 14 years in the occupation’s prisons on separate periods.

In a separate news release, the Palestinian and Turkish foreign ministries condemned Israel's decision to ratify the laying of the foundation stone for the construction of 350 units in the Beit El settlement near the city of Al-Bireh in the West Bank. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry called on the Security Council and the International Criminal Court to shoulder their responsibilities towards the "settlement crime in Beit El."

The Turkish Foreign Ministry expressed its rejection of "illegal Israeli practices," stressing the importance of holding Tel Aviv accountable "for its policies and practices that constitute a violation of international law."

The occupation authorities had announced the approval of the construction of new units in the Beit El settlement at the end of last year, and the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasts that it is the most government building of settlements.