• Ben Gvir ‘gleefully’ drives bulldozer at demolition site; residents not even allowed to gather belongings • Settlers attack photojournalists in occupied West Bank

JERUSALEM: Israeli bulldozers on Tuesday demolished a five-storey residential building in annexed east Jerusalem, which was home to about 70 people, in a move the local Palestinian authority said was aimed at “forcible transfer”.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who gleefully oversaw the demolition, said the building had been constructed without a permit.

“I love hearing this noise. We demolish what is illegal,” Ben Gvir said in a video posted on X, which showed him inside the cab of one of the bulldozers.

Densely populated east Jerusalem faces a severe housing crisis, with thousands of homes built without permits, which its Palestinian residents say are near impossible to obtain from Israeli authorities.

The Jerusalem Governorate, the Palestinian local authority for the area, condemned Tuesday’s demolition which it said was “a dangerous escalation in the policy of home demolitions and forcible transfer… and the imposition of a new demographic and urban reality”.

Hanine Hreibat, a teacher and mother of four who was renting one of the 10 apartments in the building, said a large Israeli police force arrived in the At-Tur neighbourhood in the early hours of the morning, accompanied by three bulldozers.

They stormed the apartments and gave residents 10 minutes to leave, she said.

Hreibat told AFP she had woken up to the sound of her husband shouting at the police, asking them not to enter the bedroom where she was, adding she had endured “five minutes of terror, with weapons pointed at our heads”.

She said police officers had allowed her to take only medicine, money, her handbag and ID card.

Among the rubble, residents collected gas cylinders and filled plastic bags with clothes they had managed to pull out from the huge mound of debris.

Hreibat said she had nowhere to go following the demolition.

“We’ll look for a second home. Today we’re at my in-laws’ and tomorrow at my parents’,” she said.

Settlers attack photojournalists

Also on Tuesday, Israeli settlers beat a photojournalist and fired in his direction during coverage of ongoing settler violence against West Bank olive farmers.

Jaafar Ashtiyeh, 58, a veteran photographer for the AFP news agency in the Palestinian territory, suffered bruises to his head and torso and was taken by ambulance to a hospital.

Ashtiyeh and another AFP photographer, John Wessels, were near the northern village of Aqraba where they noticed an Israeli soldier detaining a man as local Palestinians picked olives.

A quad bike suddenly raced towards the photojournalists on top of the hill and a man from it opened live fire, with one Palestinian dropping to the ground. He was also hospitalised, with a gunshot to the foot, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

At least six other people then rushed towards the AFP personnel, firing guns. As Ashtiyeh attempted to enter a car, two men jumped on him and beat him repeatedly with guns.

Ashtiyeh, who is Palestinian, is conscious and under 24-hour supervision at a hospital in Nablus, where he will undergo X-rays, said his son, Zain Jaafar. The assailants also took his camera equipment, Wessels said.

The violence took place despite the presence of at least a dozen fully equipped Israeli soldiers around 500 metres away.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2026