Pointing to the corner where he once shared tea with his mother, Fakhri Abu Diab stands amid the ruins of his demolished home in anguish.
“I remember as a child going out with my mother to tend the land, then coming back to this spot to share a cup of tea,” the Palestinian father of five said, gesturing towards the shattered remains of what was once his family home.
Located in occupied East Jerusalem's al-Bustan neighbourhood, the house was demolished by Israeli authorities in 2024.
It was one of dozens of Palestinian homes razed in the area south of Al-Aqsa Mosque as part of plans to expand Israeli settler projects and biblical-themed parks.
“They demolished my childhood, my memories, and even the scent of my mother,” Abu Diab, a long-time anti-occupation activist, told Middle East Eye.
Al-Bustan is one of the three main sections of Silwan, a Palestinian district bordering the southern walls of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City.
For decades, Silwan and other Palestinian neighbourhoods surrounding the Old City have been at the centre of Israeli demolition campaigns and displacement efforts.