JERUSALEM, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Israeli forces on Tuesday evicted a Palestinian family from the East Jerusalem home in which they lived for more than 50 years after an Israeli court ruled that Israelis are its legal owners.
A police spokeswoman confirmed that police officer carried out earlier on Tuesday a court order to evict the eight-member Shamasne family from the home in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, including a mother and a father in their eighties.
It was the first time such an eviction has been carried out in Sheikh Jarrah since 2009.
The Shamasne family ran a legal struggle for years to prevent their eviction, where they lived since 1964.
Following a petition submitted by the Israel Land Fund, a settler association that buys or takes over Palestinian-held property, Israel's Supreme Court ruled that the legal owner of the house is a Jewish family that fled the area after the Jordanian army took over East Jerusalem in the 1948 war.
Under Israeli law, Jews are allowed to claim property that they have abandoned before 1948. Palestinians are not allowed to claim back their pre-1948 property.
A spokesperson for Taayush, an Israeli human rights group, said that Israeli settlers already moved in the building.
In the 1967 Middle East war, Israel seized East Jerusalem along with the rest of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Shortly afterward, Israel annexed East Jerusalem and claimed it part of its "indivisible capital," in a move never recognized internationally.
