JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Two Palestinian brothers in the neighborhood of Silwan in occupied East Jerusalem were forced to demolish their own homes on Saturday in compliance with an Israeli court order.One of the owners, Said al-Abbasi, told Ma’an that he and his brother Nasser had built their homes in the Karm al-Sheikh area of Silwan two-and-a-half years ago. However, before construction could be completed, the Jerusalem municipality delivered demolition orders for their homes.During the court hearings, the al-Abbasi brothers, who are the fathers 12 children combined, were forced to close the construction site with concrete until all legal proceedings had concluded.Said told Ma’an that the Jerusalem municipality had threatened to imprison the two brothers if they tried to resume construction at the site.According to the brothers, they had attempted to obtain a license from the Jerusalem municipality over the past two years, but all their efforts were rejected. An Israeli court ruled in October that the houses must be demolished for lacking Israeli-issued building permits and the fact that the homes were being built on land the municipality had declared an “open space reserve.”The brothers eventually chose to self-demolish their homes to avoid costly fees charged by the municipality if it was to carry out the demolition.

A spokesperson for the Jerusalem municipality was not immediately available to comment on the incident.

At the end of last month, Israeli forces demolished two Palestinian structures in the East Jerusalem neighborhoods of Jabal al-Mukabbir and Silwan.

Earlier in November, Israeli forces demolished a Palestinian home that was under construction, and sealed off restaurant in the Jerusalem area, leaving four families without a source of income.

Israeli bulldozers also demolished the foundation of a mosque in the village of Sur Bahir in Jerusalem, just a few hours after several agricultural structures were demolished in Silwan and Jabal al-Mukabbir, amid a spate of demolitions that day across the occupied Palestinian territory.