TEHRAN – The Israeli military is reportedly considering a plan to take overfrom police the control of the situation at a Palestinian refugee camp andan Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem al-Quds amid ongoing tensions thereover a controversial US policy shift on the occupied city, Press TV hasreported.
Citing unnamed sources, Haaretz said the Israeli ministry for militaryaffairs has confirmed the army is studying the plan to assumeresponsibility for the situation in the Shuafat refugee camp and the KafrAqab district in East Jerusalem al-Quds.
Those areas are in the jurisdiction of Jerusalem al-Quds, but are cut offfrom the rest of the occupied city by Israel’s Apartheid Wall, which hasbeen under construction since 2002.
The International community designates Israel’s administrative control overEast Jerusalem al-Quds as occupation since the regime invaded the areaduring the 1967 Arab War and then annexed it.
Clashes have intensified in the area since last month, when US PresidentDonald Trump ignored a consensus about the fate of the city, which many sayshould be decided in talks with Palestinians, and declared that Washingtonwas recognizing the entire Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s “capital.”
Report say there has been almost daily clashes between Israeli forces andthe Palestinian protesters, especially the youths from the Shuafat refugeecamp and the district of Kafr Aqeb. That has prompted the Israeli armyintervene and control the situation in the neighborhoods of Jerusalemal-Quds, according to Haaretz.
Israeli authorities have indicated that if the army takes control, themunicipality of occupied Jerusalem al-Quds may no longer have ajurisdiction, and local councils will take over.
Some 150,000 people, most of them Arabs, live in Shuafat and in Kafr Aqeband all have ID cards and residency status.
The East Jerusalem al-Quds is home to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, thethird holiest site in the Muslim world and a focus of decades ofPalestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation.
US embassy relocation accelerates
Meanwhile, new reports suggest the Trump administration is moving fasterthan expected to relocate the American embassy from Tel Aviv to a facilityin West Jerusalem al-Quds that has been providing visa and other consularservices.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson insisted last month that the move wouldnot happen until the end of Trump’s term.
The fresh reports, however, said the US State Department is working on aplan to retrofit an existing US diplomatic facility in Arnona in instead ofconstructing a completely new embassy in the Jerusalem al-Quds as proposedlast month by Tillerson.
The top US diplomat had said the construction would take at least threeyears to complete.