The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) on Monday resumed the destruction of the historic Muslim cemetery of al-Yusufiya near the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem.
Head of the Islamic cemeteries committee Mustafa Abu Zahra said that an Israeli municipal crew escorted by police forces stormed the cemetery and embarked on carrying out bulldozing and digging works and destroying Palestinian and Arab graves.
He added that several local residents intervened but police forces expelled them from the yard and prevented from entering it to protect graves of their relatives against destruction.
A few days ago the Israeli municipality demolished part of the cemetery exposing human remains buried in a section where Arab soldiers killed during the 1967 war were buried.
The municipality seeks to turn the cemetery into a park and paths as part of its plan to build multiple Talmudic parks and trails for Jewish settlers and tourists around the walls of the Old City.
In December 2020 the municipality demolished a stairway and a fence at the cemetery.
In 2014 it prevented Jerusalemite citizens from burying their relatives in the cemetery’s northern area and removed 20 graves of Jordanian soldiers who were killed in 1967.
