Ramallah, July 21 (RHC)-- Dozens of Palestinians have protested a pending mass demolition plan by Israel against a village located in East Jerusalem al-Quds in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.  The protest was held by around 50 Palestinians at the village of Sur Baher on Saturday.

Media sources quoted witnesses as saying that Israeli forces arrived and used tear gas canisters and stun grenades to disperse the protesters.  A wall that the Israeli regime has been building since 2000 under the pretext of keeping out the Palestinians regularly protesting the regime’s occupation and aggression runs through the village.

The Zionist regime alleges that 10 Palestinian-owned buildings have been built too close to the barrier and is set to tear them down.  In June, Israel’s supreme court rejected a petition by the owners to cancel the demolitions. A deadline for the residents to abandon the houses expired on Friday.

“I don’t have any other place to live.  I don’t have an alternative,” Reuters cited Ismail Obeideh, a father of six and the owner of one of the houses, as saying.  Israel claims that the owners had failed to obtain “building permits” from the regime.

Obeideh and the other Sur Baher residents, however, say they did not need Israeli permission to build their homes because they had received approvals from the Palestinian Authority, which is tasked with running the West Bank’s affairs.

The United Nations, which recognizes East Jerusalem as an occupied territory, has urged Israel to halt the demolitions.