The Palestinian Authority has condemned the recent eviction of multiple families from their homes in east Jerusalem and urged the international community to take “firm measures” to halt the displacements.

Several families were removed from their homes in the neighbourhood of Silwan in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on Wednesday, AFP journalists saw.

Silwan has for decades been the target of a policy allowing Jews who lost property before the establishment of Israel in 1948 to reclaim it.

Israeli rights group B’Tselem said the evictions were the start of “a large wave of displacement affecting around 2,200 people” and were part of a policy aimed at “Judaising the neighbourhood”.

In a statement released late on Friday by official news agency WAFA, the PA’s foreign ministry “condemned the escalation by Israeli occupation authorities of forced eviction measures”.