Israeli court freezes order to displace Palestinian family from Sheikh Jarrah home

An Israeli court suspended on Tuesday an order that would see a Palestinian family forcibly displaced from their home in Sheikh Jarrah, media reported on Tuesday.

The ruling was allegedly motivated by security considerations with Israeli police voicing concern about the timing of the forced expulsion so close to Ramadan - starting this year in April.

The displacement was due to take place in March despite mounting tensions in Sheikh Jarrah, a neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem where dozens of Palestinian families face being forced from their homes to make way for Israeli settlers.

If carried out, the order would leave the 11 members of the Salem family without a home. For now, the Salems have been requested to pay a deposit worth 25,000 shekels ($7,700) as a guarantee in order to make the ruling effective.

Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah have been protesting for months against several expulsion orders  by the Jewish-dominated city council of Jerusalem.

Activists say that Israeli authorities of trying to displace Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah and replace them with Israeli settlers.

Israeli settlers allege that the Salem family's house belonged to a Jewish family before the 1948 creation of the Israeli state. Palestinian historians have frequently disputed these claims.

Known in Arabic as the Al-Nakba or "The Catastrophe", massacres by Jewish militias forced hundreds of thousands of Palestinian families from their ancestral homes in order to escape assaults on their villages.

Many sought refuge in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, which were under the custody of Jordanian authorities until 1967, while others fled to Jordan.

Israeli settlers are now attempting to claim ownership of homes displaced Palestinians moved into during the exodus.

Israeli settlements increased significantly after the Israeli 1967 invasion of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are considered illegal under international law.

Armed settlers launch frequent attacks on Palestinians, their homes, land, and property.