Israeli police razed a house in occupied east Jerusalem, shortly before the Palestinian owner arrived home with a court order halting the demolition also destroying a Palestinian village in Jordan valley.

Israeli police on Wednesday razed a house in occupied east Jerusalem, shortly before the Palestinian owner arrived home with a court order halting the demolition.
  
Scores of police and a single bulldozer were involved in the operation, which leveled the small house in the Al-Tur neighbourhood near the Mount of Olives. House owner Abed Zablah, a father of five, showed AFP a letter issued early on Wednesday by the Jerusalem District Court ordering a halt to the demolition.
  
But by the time he got home with the letter, the house was already flattened, he said. Israeli police had no immediate comment on the demolition.
The Elad organization, which engages itself in efforts to put Palestinian property to the name of the Jewish settlers, saw the 16 members of the household out of the building in the occupied East al-Quds (Jerusalem), Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz wrote. The organization encourages Jews to move into dense neighborhoods in East al-Quds, in line with Israel's policy of Judiazation of the city, which came under Tel Aviv's occupation in 1967.

Meanwhile, Israeli occupation troops in the Jordan Valley destroyed two buildings and a tent being used by Palestinians in Massu'a, southwest of Nablus, near the border with Jordan, an Israeli military spokesman told AFP.
  
The buildings, which were being used to house cattle, were demolished because they had been “erected illegally on public land”, the spokesman said.

Israel frequently issues demolition orders despite the sensitive nature of such operations on land of the Palestinians.