Since early August, when two families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in East Jerusalem were forcibly evicted from their homes, Muhammad Sabagh has had little sleep. The 61-year-old retired plumber fears that he, his five brothers and their wives and children may soon also find themselves on the street.

Israeli settlers look through the window of a house in East Jerusalem after its Palestinian occupants were evicted

The Sabagh family may become the next victim in a near 40-year battle that has been waged by two Jewish groups to reclaim properties in Sheikh Jarrah, an Arab district north of Jerusalem’s Old City, that they say belonged to them before 1948.