At approximately 10:00 am on Wednesday 21 December 2011, about 50 persons gathered in the vicinity of Force 17 square in the west of Gaza City in protest against notifications they had received from the Gaza Municipality the day before to evacuate their homes within 48 hours.
In his affidavit to Al Mezan, Adel Ahmed Abu Sha’eer, 52, one of those whose house is to be evacuated, stated that on 15 August 2011, the municipality handed the residents notifications to evacuate their homes within 24 hours.
 On the next day, Abu Sha’eer continued in his affidavit, a group of municipality officials arrived at our homes.
 A verbal dispute started and they left.
 Two weeks later, new notifications were distributed ordering us to promptly evacuate the houses.
 We created a committee from the residents of our neighborhood and went to meet with the mayor.
 He told us that the municipality would give each family a plot of land, about 200 square meters, in the Al Mashtal area west of Gaza City, and a sum of 3,000 dollars, as a 99-year rental.
 We refused his offer but promised him to think it over.
 Since that time, we’ve heard people say that the municipality compensated us and distributed lands and money to us.
 We’ve also read on the Internet some statements by engineers at the municipality saying that we received compensation.
 This is not true.
 The municipality kept sending us notifications.
 The last one was yesterday, Tuesday.
 We decided to gather opposite our homes to protest against this.
 We have been living on this plot of land since 1948.
 Our lives and our livelihood are connected to this place.
It is worth noting that the homes in question are built on government-owned plots of land.