A Palestinian family has been evicted from their home in East Jerusalem by the Israeli Police.

Under Israeli law, Jews can reclaim properties that were lost when Jordan occupied the eastern part of Jerusalem in the war of 1948-49. The Shamasnehs were forced to vacate their property, where they claim to have been living for the last 53 years, as the court ruled in favour of its original Jewish owners.

Ancestors of these owners are said to have been expelled by Jordanian forces in the 1948-49 war. The Shamasnehs then rented the property in Sheikh Jarrah from Jordan.

'No greater injustice'

The Shamasnehs are a family of six, one of them in his eighties. Police were deployed to the Sheikh Jarrah district to evacuate the family. "What greater injustice is there than this," said Fahamiya Shamasneh, 75, to AFP News Agency. "Maybe we will sleep in the street."

The family sat outside the home with activists while the new owners moved in straight away. Jerusalem Post, a local newspaper, report that one of the Shamasnehs tried to break into the house through the roof but was pacified by the police present on the scene.

This infamous case of property dispute was put forward by the Israel Land Fund, a right-wing non-governmental organisation that advocates the purchase of lands in Israel by Jews for ideological reasons. The fight over property in Jerusalem dates back to thousands of years. Israel claims the whole of Jerusalem as its capital while Palestine wants East Jerusalem as its capital. East Jerusalem harbours 370,000 Palestinians and 200,000 Jewish settlers.

Red Cross chief wants to meet missing Israelis

Meanwhile, visiting the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross has requested senior leaders of Hamas to let them meet the Israeli civilians believed to be held by the militant group.

The Ma'an news agency has reported that Peter Maurer met with Yahya Sinwar, a Hamas political leader, and the two men talked for over an hour with Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas official. The militant organisation, which the United States of America identifies as a terror group, is believed to be detaining three Israelis - Hisham al-Syed, Avraham Abera, and Juma Ibrahim Abu Ghanima. They also reportedly have the bodies of two IDF soldiers - Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin - who were killed when Israel fought with Hamas in 2014.

Mauer is also said to have met Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.