Palestinian man carries gas canister on roof as family faces eviction

Israeli police are in a standoff with a Palestinian man who carried a gas canister onto his roof of his home in a Jerusalem flashpoint district as his family faced eviction.

The Israeli media reported that Mohammed Salhiya threatened to put himself on fire if the eviction order from the Sheikh Jarrah area of Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem was carried out.

Since 2017, Salhiya's family has been facing an eviction threat when the land where his home is is allocated for school construction.

The Jerusalem municipality and the police said in a joint statement that delegates went to the home on Monday to carry out an eviction order after the Salhiyas ignored countless opportunities to vacate the land as ordered.

A Salhiya family member, Abdallah Ikermawi, said they had been in this home since the 1950s.

He said that the family was made up of 15 people, including children, because they don't have anywhere to go.

An 11 day Gaza war between Israel and Palestinians erupted last year, fuelled by anger in Sheikh Jarrah, where families battled eviction orders.

The police said their negotiators were at the Salhiya home after several residents began to fortify themselves with a gas canister and other flammable materials. Witnesses told Agence France-Presse that the clashes between the security forces and locals erupted after the police arrived, but were later calmed.

Hundreds of Palestinians are facing evictions from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah and other East Jerusalem neighbourhoods.

There are different circumstances surrounding eviction threats. In some cases, Jewish Israelis have mounted legal challenges to claim the land they say was illegally taken during the war that coincided with Israel's founding in 1948.

Palestinians have rejected these claims, saying their homes were legally purchased from Jordanian authorities who controlled east Jerusalem between 1948 and 1967.

Seven Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah have taken their legal challenges against their eviction threats to Israel's supreme court. The Salhiyas are not included in that group.

The Jerusalem City councillor Laura Wharton, who was at the scene and was due to meet the Salhiya family on Monday, criticised the municipality's actions.

They could have built the schools in the same plot without moving the families. She said there is a lot of space. The sad thing is that the municipality itself is doing this, it is not some rightwing settlers. Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 six-day war, and later annexed it in a move not recognized by the international community.

More than 200,000 Jewish settlers have moved into the area, sparking tensions with Palestinians who claim East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.