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Protests after Israel demolishes E.Jerusalem home

JERUSALEM - Palestinians protested in east Jerusalem on Tuesday, throwing rocks and setting several cars on fire, after Israeli forces demolished a home in the Arab neighbourhood of Issawiya.

Israeli police and the local officials confirmed that a home and a small room housing a printing press next door had been demolished in Issawiya, in occupied east Jerusalem.

Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said the building was demolished because it was built illegally.

Locals clashed with police brought in to protect the workers carrying out the demolitions, local Palestinian leader Darwish Darwish told AFP.

He said five Palestinians were injured, four by rubber bullets and one by a police dog that bit him.

The demolition came a year and half after a court ruled that thee home, which was not yet inhabited, had been built illegally.

Rosenfeld told AFP there were “disturbances,” including stone throwing, at the site and near the home demolition.

“Two cars were set on fire in nearby Mount Scopus and we are investigating,” he said.

Permits for Palestinians to build in east Jerusalem are extremely rare and Israel frequently issues demolition orders despite the sensitive nature of such operations on land the Palestinians want as capital of their future state.

Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the rest of the world.