Author Archives: Reuters News Agency

Death toll rises to 16 nearly a week after Florida condo collapse

By Gabriella Borter

SURFSIDE, Fla. (Reuters) -Another four bodies were found overnight in the shattered ruins of a collapsed Miami-area condominium tower, the mayor of Miami-Dade County said on Wednesday, bringing the confirmed death toll to 16 nearly a week after the building fell.

Nobody has been pulled alive from the mounds of pulverized concrete, splintered lumber and twisted metal since the early hours of the disaster, with 147 people still unaccounted for.

Officials have said they still harbor hope of finding survivors.

Investigators have not concluded what caused nearly half of the 40-year-old Champlain Towers South condo to crumple as residents slept in the early hours of last Thursday.

But a 2018 engineer’s report on the 12-floor, 136-unit complex, prepared ahead of a building safety recertification process, found structural deficiencies that are now the focus of inquiries.

As recently as April, the condo association’s president warned residents in a letter that severe concrete damage identified by the engineer around the base of the building had since grown “significantly worse.”

(Reporting by Gabriella Borter in Surfside, Fla; Additional reporting by Brad Heath, Alexandra Ulmer, Peter Szekely, Dan Whitcomb, Rich McKay, Brendan O’Brien and Kanishka Singh. Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Alistair Bell)

Afghan civilians take up arms as U.S.-led forces leave

PARWAN, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Gun in hand, 55-year-old Dost Mohammad Salangi recites poetry as he leads a small group of men to a look-out post high in the rugged hills of Parwan province, north of the Afghan capital Kabul.

Heavily bearded and wearing a traditional circular pakol hat to keep off the sun, he has a warning for the Islamist militant Taliban movement, which has increased attacks on Afghan forces and claimed more territory as foreign troops withdraw.

“If they impose war on us, oppress us and encroach on women and people’s property, even our seven-year-old children will be armed and will stand against them,” he told Reuters.

Salangi is one of hundreds of former “mujahideen” fighters and civilians who have felt compelled to take up arms to help the army repel a growing Taliban insurgency.

The group’s ascendancy on the ground comes as the last U.S.-led international forces prepare to leave after two decades of fighting that ended with no clear victory for either side.

“We have to protect our country … now there is no choice as the foreign forces abandon us,” said Farid Mohammed, a young student who joined a local anti-Taliban leader from Parwan.

He was speaking as the German military concluded the withdrawal of the second largest contingent of foreign troops after the United States with around 150,000 soldiers deployed over the past two decades, many of them serving more than one tour in the country.

U.S. President Joe Biden and NATO said in mid-April they would pull out the roughly 10,000 foreign troops still in Afghanistan by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York that prompted the mission.

The United Nations envoy for Afghanistan said this week the Taliban had taken more than 50 of 370 districts and was positioned to control provincial capitals as the country looked increasingly unstable as foreign military support ended.

Armed mainly with old assault rifles, pistols and grenade launchers, men like Salangi and Mohammed have joined local shopkeepers and traders as part of a loosely-formed Public Uprising Force trying to reclaim some of those areas.

Ajmal Omar Shinwari, a spokesman for the Afghan defense and security forces, said Afghans keen to take up arms against the Taliban were being absorbed intro the structure of territorial army forces.

But some political analysts warn of the growing risk of a return to civil war as more groups took up arms.

Faced with rising violence, President Ashraf Ghani visited Washington in June to meet Biden, who pledged U.S. support to Afghanistan but said Afghans must decide their own future.

Talks to try and find a political settlement in Afghanistan have stalled, although the head of the Afghan peace council has said they should not be abandoned despite the surge in Taliban attacks.

(Reporting by Afghanistan bureau, Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

In Wisconsin, Biden says infrastructure plan would create millions of jobs

By Andrea Shalal

LA CROSSE, Wis. (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden promoted his $1.2 trillion infrastructure package as a “generational investment” on Tuesday as he sought to pump up support for a plan that is in need of wide support in Congress to become reality.

Biden visited a public transit facility in La Crosse, a city in western Wisconsin, highlighting the plan’s investment of some $48.5 billion in public transit to reduce commute times and help reduce emissions, while boosting economic growth and wages.

In a speech, he spoke about local gains from the deal, including funds for electric buses, replacement of some 80,000 lead water lines in Milwaukee and better access to high-speed internet.

The bipartisan package also includes $109 billion in funding for roads, bridges and other major projects, including the 1,000 bridges rated structurally deficient in Wisconsin.

“This is a generational investment to modernize our infrastructure, creating millions of good-paying jobs, and position America to compete with the rest of the world in the 21st century,” said Biden.

He also noted that the plan will not hike tax on gasoline or raise taxes on Americans earning under $400,000 a year.

Vowing the plan would create jobs for middle-class people, Biden said: “This is a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America.”

Biden is attempting to keep up the momentum for a legislative proposal that Democratic congressional leaders believe will reach a critical stage in the second half of July.

“I expect the last two weeks of July to be very busy weeks, when we will deal with the president’s proposals,” the No. 2 House Democrat, Steny Hoyer, told reporters on Tuesday.

House and Senate Democrats hope to have infrastructure legislation done and on its way to Biden’s desk by the end of September, a Democratic aide said.

Senate Democrats are aiming to pass bipartisan legislation and send it to the House, before breaking for an August recess.

Biden, under massive pressure from Republicans, on Saturday withdrew a threat to not sign the bipartisan bill unless it was accompanied by a separate package focused on what he calls “human infrastructure,” including expanded home care for the elderly and disabled.

Press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Monday that the White House had been in touch with Democratic leaders about the two measures but Biden had not spoken about the issue with U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who wants Democrats in Congress to abandon their plan to link the two measures.

With the Senate divided 50-50 between the two parties, a move by McConnell against the bipartisan bill could cost it the 60 votes it would need to pass under Senate rules. Democrats aim to pass the companion measure through a process called reconciliation that requires a simple majority.

Psaki said Biden’s trip to Wisconsin was intended to convince Americans about the importance of both packages. He will also travel to Michigan on Saturday.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Additional reporting by Jeff Mason and Steve Holland; Editing by Himani Sarkar, Steve Orlofsky and Cynthia Osterman)

Heart inflammation after COVID-19 shots higher-than-expected in study of U.S. military

By Carl O’Donnell

(Reuters) – Members of the U.S. military who were vaccinated against COVID-19 showed higher-than-expected rates of heart inflammation, although the condition was still extremely rare, according to a study released on Tuesday.

The study found that 23 previously healthy males with an average age of 25 complained of chest pain within four days of receiving a COVID-19 shot. The incident rate was higher than some previous estimates would have anticipated, it said.

All the patients, who at the time of the study’s publication had recovered or were recovering from myocarditis – an inflammation of the heart muscle – had received shots made by either Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE or Moderna Inc.

U.S. health regulators last week added a warning to the literature that accompanies those mRNA vaccines to flag the rare risk of heart inflammation seen primarily in young males. But they said the benefit of the shots in preventing COVID-19 clearly continues to outweigh the risk.

The study, which was published in the JAMA Cardiology medical journal, said 19 of the patients were current military members who had received their second vaccine dose. The others had either received one dose or were retired from the military.

General population estimates would have predicted eight or fewer cases of myocarditis from the 436,000 male military members who received two COVID-19 shots, the study said.

An outside panel of experts advising the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said last week that reports of myocarditis were higher in males and in the week after the second vaccine dose than would be anticipated in the general population. A presentation at that meeting found the heart condition turned up at a rate of about 12.6 cases per million people vaccinated.

Eight of the military patients in the study were given diagnostic scans and showed signs of heart inflammation that could not be explained by other causes, the study said. The patients in the study ranged from ages 20 to 51.

The CDC began investigating the potential link between the mRNA vaccines and myocarditis in April after Israel flagged that it was studying such cases in people who received the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine there, and after a report that the U.S. military had also found cases.

Health regulators in several countries are conducting their own investigations.

(Reporting by Carl O’Donnell; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

Rescue workers make slow progress at Florida building collapse

By Gabriella Borter

SURFSIDE, Fla. (Reuters) -Search-and-rescue operations stretched into a sixth day on Tuesday at the site of an oceanside Florida condominium complex that partially collapsed, although with no survivors found since last week hopes are dim for the 150 people still missing.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told reporters that no bodies had been recovered from the rubble since Monday, keeping the official death toll at 11.

What caused a major section of the 40-year-old high-rise to crumble into a heap remains under investigation. Initial attention has focused on structural deficiencies described in a 2018 engineer’s report.

In April 2021, the condo association president warned residents that concrete damage had “gotten significantly worse” along with roof damage, and urged them to pay some $15 million in assessments needed to make repairs, media reported.

Authorities on Tuesday held out the possibility that survivors might yet be found in the pile of concrete and twisted metal left when nearly half of the tower abruptly caved in on itself.

“The way I look at it as an old Navy guy is that when somebody is missing in the military, you’re missing until you’re found, and we don’t stop the search,” said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. “Those first-responders are breaking their back, trying to find anybody they can.”

Officials said late on Monday that emergency teams were still treating the round-the-clock operation – which has employed dog teams, cranes and infrared scanners – as a search-and-rescue effort.

But no one has been extricated alive from the ruins of the oceanfront Champlain Towers South condo in Surfside, adjacent to Miami Beach, since a few hours after one side of the high-rise collapsed early Thursday morning as residents slept.

Fire officials have spoken of detecting faint sounds from inside the rubble pile and finding voids deep in the debris large enough to possibly sustain life.

“Not to say that we have seen anyone down there, but we’ve not gotten to the very bottom,” Miami-Dade Assistant Fire Chief Raide Jadallah told reporters on Monday.

President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden will visit Surfside on Thursday, the White House said.

“They want to thank the heroic first responders, search-and-rescue teams and everyone who has been working tirelessly around the clock, and meet with the families who have been forced to endure this terrible tragedy,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.

The disaster has led officials in nearby areas scrambling to check the safety of buildings.

Miami Beach, just to the south of Surfside, has ordered a “walkthrough visual” inspection of about 500 multi-family commercial units over the next week, Mayor Dan Gelber said.

“But at the same time we are going to require within probably three weeks, all of these buildings in the recertification process to come up with an updated report,” Gelber told CNN.

The tragedy may end up ranking as the greatest loss of life from an accidental building collapse in U.S. history.

Crowds of rescue workers were standing on top of the debris pile on Tuesday morning, sifting through the rubble. Scattered thunderstorms are expected on Tuesday, potentially slowing search efforts.

A makeshift memorial a block from the site held bouquets of fresh hydrangeas tucked into a chain-link fence. A poster board with hearts had a message for the first responders: “Thank you for looking for my grandmother.”

ENGINEER’S REPORT

The 2018 engineer’s report warned of “major structural damage” to the concrete slab beneath the pool deck and concrete deterioration, including exposed rebar, in the underground parking garage. The report’s author, Frank Morabito, wrote that the deterioration would “expand exponentially” if not repaired.

In April 2021, the condo association president informed residents that the concrete damage had “gotten significantly worse,” along with roof damage, and urged them to pay around $15 million in assessments needed to make repairs, according to a letter obtained by the Wall Street Journal and USA Today and seen by Reuters.

“It’s all starting to come together now, because like I’ve said all along, there was something very, very wrong at this building,” Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett told CNN on Tuesday when asked about the letter. “Buildings in America just don’t fall down like this.”

Burkett said the condominium association officials probably did not grasp the “intensity” of the issue. “Obviously, that was a fatal mistake,” he said.

A lawyer who works with the association, Donna DiMaggio Berger, previously said the issues outlined in the 2018 report were typical for older buildings in the area.

Ross Prieto, then Surfside’s top building official, met residents weeks after the report was produced and assured them the building was “in very good shape,” according to minutes of the meeting released on Monday.

Reuters was unable to reach Prieto, who is no longer employed by Surfside. He told the Miami Herald newspaper he did not remember getting the report.

(Reporting by Gabriella Borter in Surfside, Florida; Additional reporting by Brendan O’Brien, Brad Heath, Peter Szekely, Kanishka Singh and Dan Whitcomb; Writing by Joseph Ax and Alistair Bell; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Rosalba O’Brien)

Mexico president floats referendum option on recreational marijuana after court says to legalize

By Raul Cortes

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Tuesday he will respect a court ruling telling the government and lawmakers to legalize recreational marijuana use for now, but opened the door to convening a public referendum on the issue.

The Supreme Court ruling on Monday brings Mexico closer to creating one of the world’s largest legal cannabis markets and pressures the Mexican Senate to approve the sweeping legalization bill that has been stalled there since the Lower House of Congress approved it in March.

“Of course we’re going to respect what the court has decided and we’re going to evaluate. We’re going to see what effects it has,” Lopez Obrador said at a regular news conference in response to a question about the Supreme Court’s decision.

However, Lopez Obrador acknowledged “there are two views” on the legal weed issue, including in his cabinet, and said his government was evaluating the best path forward.

“If we see … that it’s not working to address the serious problem of drug addiction, that it’s not working to stop violence, then we would act,” the president said, suggesting he could send a new bill to Congress or push for a public referendum.

Lopez Obrador has in the past used referendums to decide thorny policy issues. On Tuesday he again laid out the argument for such “participative democracy” in the context of the cannabis debate.

His comments were not decisive however, and he did not explicitly say he was leaning toward such a solution.

Colombian-Canadian Khiron Life Sciences, Canada’s Canopy Growth and The Green Organic Dutchman, as well as Medical Marijuana, Inc. from California, are among the firms eyeing opportunities in Mexico.

The court ruling removes a legal obstacle for the health ministry to authorize activities related to consuming cannabis for recreational purposes, and was the final step in a drawn-out legal battle to declare unconstitutional a prohibition on non-medical or scientific use of marijuana and its main active ingredient THC.

Lopez Obrador said he will instruct health regulator Cofepris to comply with the ruling to authorize activities related to the cultivation, transformation, sale, research and export or import of marijuana.

(Reporting by Raul Cortes Fernandez; Writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

U.S., European suppliers scramble to secure Christmas goods as cargo delays worsen

By Lisa Baertlein and Jonathan Saul

LOS ANGELES/LONDON (Reuters) – Suppliers to Walmart, Target, Amazon.com and other major retailers told Reuters they are placing holiday orders for Chinese-made merchandise weeks earlier this year, as a global shipping backlog threatens to leave many gift buyers empty-handed this Christmas shopping season.

Reuters surveyed nearly a dozen suppliers and retailers of everything from toys to computer equipment in the United States and Europe. All expect weeks-long delays in holiday inventory due to shipping bottlenecks, including a global container shortage and the recent COVID-related closure of the southern Chinese port of Yantian, which serves manufacturers near Shenzhen.

The risk for retailers is a rash of out-of-stock items just as shoppers are ready to open their wallets to splurge on toys, clothing and other merchandise.

“It’s going to be a major, major mess,” said Isaac Larian, chief executive of Los Angeles-based MGA Entertainment Inc, which sells LOL Surprise, Bratz, Little Tikes and other toy brands to Amazon, Walmart and Target.

His company has toys stuck in hundreds of containers at the Yantian port. If he can’t get enough inventory for his retail clients, “it’s going to hurt the Christmas sales big time,” Larian said.

The shipping logjams are due to more than just the backlog in Yantian, which is considered Amazon’s No. 1 Chinese seaport, – accounting for 32.4% of shipments handled by the e-commerce company in the three months to May 31, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence’s trade data firm Panjiva.

While Yantian port reopened on June 24, a shortage of containers was still constraining full activity, globally cargo ships are overbooked, containers are stranded in the wrong places, and ports are congested.

Products are piling up on factory floors, in warehouse parking lots, on seaport docks and at rail yards – threatening more backups than last year’s holiday “shipageddon,” when many items arrived after Christmas.

Amazon and other retailers did not respond to requests for comment.

‘UNABLE TO BUILD INVENTORY’

Retailers generally are selling goods as fast as they can bring them in, said Jason Miller, associate professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University’s Eli Broad College of Business.

“Their sales are so high right now that they’re unable to build inventory levels up substantially,” said Miller.

If that torrid clip continues, retailers – excluding auto-related operators – would have to add about $65.1 billion in inventories to be in the same pre-holiday inventory-to-sales position they were in 2019, he said.

Andy Bond, chief executive of Pepco Group, which owns British discount retailer Poundland, told Reuters separately, “it’s definitely a day-to-day challenge and a headache that we are facing.”

Clothing sellers are looking at air freight as an option – including  PVH Corp, which owns the Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein brands.

Christmas-themed inventory “might be here for Thanksgiving weekend – and it might not be,” said Balsam Hill CEO Mac Harman, who sells high-end artificial Christmas trees and other holiday décor. Some of his orders from China may not arrive in time for his July sales kickoff – or even by Christmas, he said.

“We’re hundreds of containers behind where we should be at this point,” he said, with at least 10% fewer products in stock.

Michael Shah, CEO of British-based Easy Equipment, which supplies catering equipment across the United Kingdom, is racing to bring goods in early after already contending with containers held up in China.

“We are already starting to order more stock now knowing that by September-October, we have to be prepared,” Shah said. “It gets busy in the run-up to Christmas with the restaurant trade, and we are having to bite the bullet and try and rush in stock.”

Carly McGinnis, head of production, sales and logistics at Exploding Kittens, wants to make sure major retailers such as Walmart and Target don’t run out of its games. The Los Angeles-based company is making more games this year and began shipping holiday orders in March, about four months earlier than in 2020.

She also gives Walmart  and Target the option to import some of their own orders. Because the two retailers are among the top U.S. importers of containerized goods, they may get priority access to containers and space on cargo ships.

“I’ve told our investors, and my internal team, something will be out of stock – there will be an issue. I don’t know when and I don’t know what it will be, but it’s certainly going to happen,” McGinnis said.

Meanwhile, Bernie Thompson said he has abandoned hope for a holiday restock of laptop docking stations and some other computer equipment he sells  via Amazon and other retailers. That’s because it can take more than 12 months to get some of his top-selling products, which rely on hard-to-find computer chips.

“It’s too late for Christmas,” said Thompson, founder of Washington-based Plugable Technologies.

(Additional reporting by James Davey in London, Anna Ringstrom in Stockholm and Muyu Xu in Beijing; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

U.S. consumer confidence near 1-1/2-year high; house prices accelerate

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. consumer confidence jumped to its highest level in nearly 1-1/2 years in June as growing labor market optimism amid a reopening economy offset concerns about higher inflation.

The survey from the Conference Board on Tuesday also showed strong appetite to buy goods such as motor vehicles and household appliances, suggesting strong momentum in the economy as the second quarter ended.

Consumers were also keen to purchase homes, a sign that house prices will continue to rapidly increase as supply lags. Many intended to go on vacation, mostly in the United States, over the next six months, which should boost demand for services and add fuel to consumer spending.

“Consumer attitudes are likely to benefit from the ongoing reopening and a better health backdrop going forward that will support job growth and incomes,” said Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics in White Plains, New York.

The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index raced to a reading of 127.3 this month, the highest level since February 2020, from 120.0 in May. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the index at 119.0.

The survey places more emphasis on the labor market, which is steadily recovering. More than 150 million Americans have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, allowing for broader economic re-engagement.

The survey’s present situation measure, based on consumers’ assessment of current business and labor market conditions, increased to 157.7 from 148.7 last month. The expectations index, based on consumers’ short-term outlook for income, business and labor market conditions, rose to 107.0 from 100.9.

Consumers’ inflation expectations over the next 12 months rose to 6.7% from 6.5% last month.

Stocks on Wall Street were trading mostly higher. The dollar rose against a basket of currencies. U.S. Treasury prices fell.

STRONG LABOR MARKET VIEWS

The Conference Board survey’s so-called labor market differential, derived from data on respondents’ views on whether jobs are plentiful or hard to get, vaulted to 43.5 in June. That was the highest level since 2000 and was up from 36.9 in May.

This measure closely correlates to the unemployment rate in the Labor Department’s closely watched employment report. The jump in the so-called labor market differential augurs well for June’s employment report due out on Friday. There are a record 9.3 million job openings.

Though job growth has picked up, a shortage of willing workers is frustrating companies’ efforts to ramp up hiring. The worker shortage has been blamed on generous unemployment benefits, including a weekly $300 subsidy from the federal government. A lack of child care facilities as some centers which shut during the pandemic never reopened, is also keeping some parents home.

At least 26 states are terminating federal government-funded unemployment benefits before the Sept. 6 expiration date. This, together with school districts expected to resume in-person classes in the fall, is seen expanding the labor pool.

This month, more consumers planned to buy homes, cars and major household appliances over the next six months, relative to May. That suggests demand for so-called durable goods will remain strong even as spending shifts backs to services such as air travel, dining out and hotel accommodation.

Strong demand for homes amid a dearth of properties on the market is fueling house price inflation.

A separate report on Tuesday showed the S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas accelerated 14.9% year-on-year in April, the largest gain since December 2005. That followed a 13.4% increase in March.

Soaring house price inflation was corroborated by another report showing the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) house price index shot up a record 15.7% in April from a year ago after rising 14.0% in March.

The FHFA’s index is calculated by using purchase prices of houses financed with mortgages sold to or guaranteed by mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Demand for housing is being driven by historically low mortgage rates.

Economists do not believe another housing bubble is developing, noting that the surge is being mostly driven by a mismatch between supply and demand, rather than poor lending practices, which triggered the 2008 global financial crisis. But the rapidly rising prices could feed inflation.

“Despite the pick-up in house price expectations, we don’t think a self-reinforcing bubble will form, nor do we expect values will crash,” said Sam Hall, a property economist at Capital Economics. “Rather, we think rising mortgage rates and stretched affordability will cool house price growth to around 7% year-on-year by the end of the year.”

(Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Andrea Ricci)

Avista warns of more power outages in Washington state due to heatwave

(Reuters) – Washington state energy company Avista Corp told customers to prepare for more heat-related outages on Tuesday after some lost power Monday evening, as homes and businesses cranked up their air conditioners to escape a brutal heatwave.

The company said outages planned for Tuesday “are a protective measure intended to minimize the customer impact, alleviate strain on the electric system and prevent extensive damage to the system that could result in prolonged outages.”

“The electric system experienced a new peak demand, and the strain of the high temperatures impacted the system in a way that required us to proactively turn off power for some customers,” Avista CEO Dennis Vermillion said in a news release.

The Pacific Northwest has been gripped by an intense heatwave that has shut down much of daily life for residents.

High temperatures in Seattle, the biggest city in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, will reach 92 degrees Fahrenheit (33 Celsius) on Tuesday, down from a record 104 F on Monday, according to forecasts by AccuWeather. That compares with a normal high of just 73 F at this time of year.

Power prices in the Pacific Northwest for Tuesday eased with the Mid Columbia (Mid C) hub in Washington state down to $146 per megawatt hour (MWh) from a record $334 for Monday.

That compares with an average of $30 per MWh at the Mid C over the past five years (2016-2020).

Avista urged all 400,000 of its power customers in Washington, Idaho and Oregon to conserve energy and warned that many of the roughly 8,000 homes and businesses that experienced outages on Monday could have the same thing happen on Tuesday.

The company said the outages will be targeted during the hours of 1 p.m. and 8 p.m. local time and are expected to last one hour.

Some customers may experience more than one outage with no less than one hour in between outages.

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Paul Simao)

Police, Palestinians clash as Israel begins demolition in Jerusalem’s Silwan

By Ammar Awad and Zainah El-Haroun

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel demolished a Palestinian shop in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan on Tuesday, triggering scuffles between police and protesters who accused authorities of discriminatory enforcement of building permits in the holy city.

Palestinians seek East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in a 1967 war, for a future state. Israel deems all of Jerusalem its capital – a status not recognized internationally – and has encouraged Jewish settlement of predominantly Palestinian areas.

A bulldozer escorted by Israeli police flattened Harbi Rajabi’s butchers shop in the neighborhood which is overlooked by the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest shrine in Islam and the most sensitive site in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The shop is one of at least eight properties that residents said were slated for demolition. The residents say many have been there for decades, even from before 1967. The authorities have earmarked the land for a park and say the shops and homes have been built illegally.

Mahmoud Basit who runs the butchers told Reuters 14 family members depended on income from there. “We have no other way to support our families,” said Basit, who added he would have to look for new work from scratch.

Deputy Jerusalem Mayor Arieh King said “around 20” buildings in Silwan – which Israel refers to by its Hebrew name Shiloach – had received demolition orders. Around another 60 buildings there were in violation of Israeli zoning laws, he told Reuters.

Palestinians in Silwan say it is near-impossible to get building permits. They see the demolitions as designed to drive them from Jerusalem. Disputing this, King said the municipality had approved hundreds of new Palestinian homes in Silwan.

Palestinian medics said 13 people were injured in Tuesday’s confrontations in Silwan. Police said two officers were hurt by stone-throwers and that three people were arrested for disorderly conduct and assault.

The municipality had given Palestinians until June 28 to dismantle the structures themselves. King said the land would be cleared to make way for the park and public buildings, adding that Silwan’s biblical links made it “an important historical site”.

Nader Abu Diab, who also received a demolition order, lives in fear of the knock on the door from municipal inspectors.

“My grandchildren ask me questions and I can’t answer them. They’re children. What can I tell them? That they’re going to demolish our home?” Abu Diab, 55, said.

His brother, Fakhri Abu Diab said he applied seven times for an Israeli permit to expand his home in Silwan “but it was always rejected.” He added that over a hundred Palestinians could become homeless if the current round of demolitions continues.

The future of another East Jerusalem neighborhood, Sheikh Jarrah, was one of the flashpoints at the heart of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants last month.

(Reporting by Ammar Awad and Zainah El-Haroun; Editing by Alison Williams)