JERUSALEM: Israeli troops on Sunday began demolishing a huge concrete wall erected nine years ago to prevent shooting attacks towards Gilo, a Jewish neighborhood in occupied east Jerusalem.
Soldiers wearing construction helmets began removing the towering slabs from one of the streets, lowering them onto a truck, an AFP correspondent said, in operation likely to take a fortnight.
The two-meter-high concrete barrier was set up in 2001 along several streets on the southernmost edge of Gilo which sits just across the valley from the West Bank Palestinian village of Beit Jala.
During the second intifada, gunmen in Beit Jala would take pot shots at their Jewish neighbours, prompting Israel to erect several hundred metres of protective concrete along the length of at least four streets and to install bullet-proof glass in all the homes there.
Mortar shells were also fired from Beit Jala towards Gilo during the early years of the intifada.
The wall was soon covered with paintings and brightly-colored murals and quickly became one of the landmark images of the second Palestinian uprising.
It was also a precursor of the huge separation barrier Israel has nearly completed which cuts through the West Bank — a section of which now runs along the northern edge of Beit Jala.
The military said the wall was being razed as a result of the long spate of calm prevailing in the area.
"As a result of the stable security situation in the area, the Israel Defense Forces, in coordination with the Jerusalem municipality and the Israeli police will begin dismantling the protective concrete structure used to defend civilians from sniping," it said in a statement.
