RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Ahmad Abu Holy, the head of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLO) refugee department, accused the Israeli municipality of West Jerusalem of waging a war on the Shufat refugee camp with the demolition of 20 Palestinian shops in Shufat refugee camp in occupied Jerusalem“under the illegal pretext of building without a permit.”Israeli forces along with the Israeli Civil Administration staff stormed the Shufat refugee camp, in occupied East Jerusalem, while bulldozers began to demolish more than 20 Palestinian shops.The demolition campaign took place under the pretext that the shops were built without the difficult-to-obtain Israeli permit.Abu Holy said in a statement, “The Israeli municipality of West Jerusalem intended to change the character of the camp as part of former West Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat’s plan to end the status of the camp as a refugee camp as part of a bigger plan to end the presence of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Jerusalem and to shut down all its services.”
