On November 16, 2015, the military demolished, with the
approval of the High Court of Justice (HCJ 7081/15), the top floor of a three-story building in Qalandia Refugee Camp, where lived a camp resident who committed an attack against Israelis some months earlier.
Despite an engineer opinion, submitted by HaMoked as part of its
court petition, which suggested that the demolition as planned might cause heavy damage to the bottom floors on the building as well as to nearby structures, the military chose to carry out the demolition using explosives. As a result, the bottom floors sustained heavy damage and turned inhabitable. Consequently, on November 19, 2015, the Palestinian Authority had to demolish the entire structure for being an imminent hazard.
Later on, the property owners rebuilt part of the structure – but not the seized and demolished floor – in coordination with the military. However, on the late night hours of November 12, 2016, soldiers raided the family’s home, took photos of the exterior of the building and broke the entrance door. Two days later,
the military announced that the family must demolish within 48 hours “support columns, stairs, etc.” leading up to the unbuilt top floor, otherwise the military would do so. The military claimed that “construction has been carried out there, on the floor linked to the assailant, which was seized by the military commander”. On November 17, 2016, HaMoked petitioned the HCJ against the military’s decision. That same day, the HCJ issued a temporary order prohibiting the demolition pending another decision.
At the same time, HaMoked sent the military a
request to remit the seizure of the floor in question, but the military rejected the request.
