Jerusalem’s Palestinian residents are facing an escalating campaign of destruction, with over 620 homes and structures torn down by Israeli forces since the beginning of the war on Gaza in October 2023. The figure, released by the Jerusalem Governorate on Wednesday, paints a bleak picture of forced displacement and systemic erasure taking place in the heart of the occupied city.

Among the demolished buildings are decades-old family homes, vital shops, and unfinished structures, each representing a shattered livelihood. Entire neighbourhoods, like Hizma in the city’s northeast, have come under heavy military siege during demolition operations. These actions, the Governorate stated, are part of a wider policy to strip Jerusalem of its Palestinian identity, forcibly reshaping the city through land grabs, settler expansion, and punitive planning restrictions.

One of the most harrowing elements of this policy is the growing number of families coerced into demolishing their own homes to avoid heavy fines or imprisonment. Many have already paid astronomical fees to Israeli authorities, yet are denied the basic right to rebuild. Just 2% of Palestinian requests for building permits are approved, despite Palestinians making up over a third of Jerusalem’s population.

The pattern of demolitions, the statement emphasised, amounts to deliberate displacement. With Palestinians confined to just 13% of East Jerusalem's land and constantly targeted by settler violence and institutional discrimination, the city's Arab and Islamic character is being dismantled in plain sight.

The Governorate called the situation a war crime and appealed to the international community to act, urging the International Criminal Court and UN agencies to intervene before the last traces of Palestinian life in Jerusalem are wiped away. The demolitions, it warned, are not isolated incidents but a central pillar in a calculated strategy to replace a native people with a settler reality.

As the world watches the destruction in Gaza, the silent suffocation of Jerusalem continues, stone by stone, home by home.