UPDATE - Israel razes Palestinian building in occupied E. J'lem

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By Abdel Raouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM - Israeli forces on Tuesday demolished a Palestinian-owned residential building in occupied East Jerusalem's Shufat refugee camp.

The house was reportedly razed on the pretext that it had been built “without official permission”.

According to witnesses, Israeli police, accompanied by municipal workers, used heavy machinery to demolish the two-story building, which was still under construction.

In recent years, Israel’s Jerusalem Municipality has ordered the demolition of Palestinian homes with increasing frequency, usually on the pretext that they had been built without government authorization.

Local and international rights groups, for their part, say the municipality deliberately avoids granting construction permits to Palestinian residents while allowing numerous Jewish-only settlement units to be built in the area.

In a related development, seven Palestinians in East Jerusalem were reportedly injured by Israeli troops on Tuesday.

In a statement, the Palestinian Red Crescent (PRC) said two people were struck by rubber bullets after clashes erupted between Israeli forces and Palestinian youths at the nearby Qalandiya checkpoint.

The two have since been taken to the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah, while five others were treated at the scene after being exposed to excessive teargas, according to the PRC.