This morning, Thursday, Israeli occupation forces stormed the Friday Market area in central Jerusalem and began carrying out bulldozing operations there.

Crews of the so-called “Israeli Nature Authority” carried out excavation operations in the land adjacent to the wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Old City, near the Yusufiyya Cemetery, amid the presence of occupation police forces.

The occupation police had closed the land designated for the market about a week ago with cement blocks and prevented the families who owned the land from using it.

The (Trench Land), or what is known as the Friday Market, is located next to the northeastern corner of the old city wall, with an area of one dunam and two hundred and sixty meters, at the beginning of the vital road connecting Harun al-Rashid Street and Bab al-Asbat. It was known as the “Trench Land” because it contains a trench and a well at the end of it.

The “Trench Land” is owned by three Jerusalemite families from the town of Silwan: Awis, Hamad, and Atallah. The families’ sons inherited it from their fathers and grandfathers, and the families worked to rent it to the successive governments that were present in Jerusalem.