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Israeli police have evicted a Palestinian family from an East Jerusalem home at the centre of an historic property dispute. dropdown The Shamasnehs vacated the house, where they said they had lived for 53 years, after Israeli courts ruled in favour of an heir of its original Jewish owners.Under Israeli law, Jews can reclaim property lost when Jordan occupied East Jerusalem in the war of 1948-9. dropdown On Tuesday morning, police were deployed to the Sheikh Jarrah district as officials evicted the Shamasnehs.The family of six, one of whom is in his 80s, left the house and sat outside with activists, local media said. What greater injustice is there than this?" Fahamiya Shamasneh, 75, told AFP news agency. "Maybe we will sleep in the street." dropdown A member of the family tried to break back in through the roof but was stopped and threatened with arrest, the Jerusalem Post newspaper reported.A family of new, Jewish occupants, moved into the property as soon as it was vacated. dropdown The issue of control in East Jerusalem is one of the most contentious areas of dispute between Israel and the Palestinians.Israel claims the whole of Jerusalem as its capital, while Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state. dropdown More than 600,000 Jews live in about 140 settlements in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this. dropdown The land in Sheikh Jarrah was originally owned by a family among the thousands of Jews who fled or were expelled from eastern Jerusalem by Jordanian forces in the 1948-9 war. The property was later rented from Jordan by the Shamasnehs.