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United Nations representatives have denounced the potential forced expulsion of Palestinian families from their homes in occupied East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood as a “violation of international law”.

Speaking from Sheikh Jarrah on Wednesday, UNRWA commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini said: “This eviction violates international law and Israel’s obligation as an occupying power. For UNRWA, these Palestinian refugees are experiencing the second displacement in living memory.”

He said as the head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees it is his job “to protect and assist Palestinian refugees”.

“I have made it our priority to help prevent another cycle of trauma and loss,” Lazzarini added.

Aljazeera reports that Sheikh Jarrah has been the site of continuing demonstrations as dozens of Palestinians living there face forced expulsion in a case filed against them by Jewish settler organisations.

Mass protests against their forced dispossession in May quickly spread across historic Palestine and caught the attention of the international media.

An Israeli crackdown on protesters spread to Al-AqsaMosque, where Israeli security forces stormed the compound numerous times during the holy month of Ramadan, wounding hundreds of Muslim worshippers.

On May 9, under pressure, the Israeli high court delayed the ruling on the expulsion of four Palestinian families. A new court date will be announced in 30 days, it said.

“It is very difficult to explain how the lives of these eight families risk being turned upside down for the second time within nearly three generations of being Palestinian refugees,” said Lazzarini.

“I saw one home which Israeli settlers have already taken over half of the house. The house is actually divided into two – a Palestinian family and a settler family. It is surreal.”

He said the UNRWA continues to call on Israeli authorities to “end this displacement” and “protect the rights and dignity” of Palestinians in the occupied territories, including in Sheikh Jarrah.

Reporting from West Jerusalem, Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett said “there has been massing international pressure on this issue”.

“Israel’s foreign minister was at the beginning of May talking about this as a private land dispute. That is not the story as far as the international community and law and the Palestinians are concerned. This is occupied territory beholden to international law, and Israel has a responsibility towards the Palestinian families there.

“Israel is coming under mounting pressure. There is now a political element as far as Israel is concerned,” said Fawcett, adding Israel’s attorney general has until June 8 to give his legal opinion on the matter.

Also speaking from Sheikh Jarrah, Gwyn Lewis, director of UNRWA affairs in the occupied West Bank, said the Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah have the right to support from UNRWA.

“The families never, ever lost their Palestine refugee status,” said Lewis. “They are recognised as Palestinian refugees, are registered with UNRWA as Palestine refugees, and have the right to receive support from UNRWA like other Palestine refugees.”

A heavy presence of police and paramilitary forces has blocked access to Sheikh Jarrah since May 14, according to Palestinian activists.

The closure has intensified with the entry of supporters of Palestinian residents banned because of “the so-called risk of clashes”, but these restrictions are not imposed on supporters of Jewish settlers living there, Israeli NGO Ir Amim told Al Jazeera last month.

Meanwhile, Palestinian families are living inside “a cordoned-off military-like zone”.

“They are subject to ongoing arbitrary harassment and aggressive police measures,” marked by forced entry into homes and the use of stun grenades, skunk water and rubber-tipped bullets against neighbourhood residents, said the NGO.

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Egypt on the second day of a regional tour to bolster a ceasefire reached last week between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian faction that runs the besieged Gaza Strip.

Aljazeera reports that eleven days of Israeli bombardment that began on May 10 killed at least 248 Palestinians, including 66 children, and wounded nearly 2,000 others in the coastal enclave. At least 12 people in Israel, including two children, were killed by rockets fired by Hamas and other armed groups from Gaza during the same period.

Blinken’s visit to Cairo on Wednesday came a day after he held separate meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas. The top US diplomat pledged millions in aid to rebuilding efforts in Gaza that he said the US would “ensure” would not benefit Hamas, with whom Washington does not have direct contact and labels a “terrorist organisation”.

In Cairo, Blinken was due to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi before flying on to Jordan for talks with King Abdullah II.

Egyptian mediators have been leading negotiations between Israel and Hamas.

US President Joe Biden, in a call with el-Sisi on Monday, thanked Egypt for “its successful diplomacy” and coordination with Washington to achieve the ceasefire.

The Biden administration has credited its own “quiet”, behind-the-scenes approach with bringing an end to the bombings, brushing off criticism that the US did not take a hard enough line with Israel in the early days of the escalation, which included the US blocking four times a United Nations Security Council joint statement calling for a ceasefire.

Following his meetings with Netanyahu and Abbas on Tuesday, Blinken called on all parties “to build on the ceasefire and try to move things in a genuinely positive direction”.

He said the Biden administration “would notify Congress of our intention to provide $75m in additional development and economic assistance to the Palestinians in 2021”. He also pledged $5.5m in “immediate disaster assistance” for Gaza and about $32m for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.

Blinken said the US will work with partners to “ensure that Hamas does not benefit from the reconstruction assistance”, but did not offer details on how that would be achieved, or how the ongoing discord between Hamas and the Fatah-led PA would be navigated.

While referencing that a future Israel-Palestine peace process “ultimately requires two states”, and condemning actions that lead to further violence, including annexation, home demolitions and settlement activities, Blinken has put relatively little emphasis on wider peace negotiations during his trip.

Instead, he said the US would support economic development and the creation of opportunities in the occupied Palestinian territory and called for “equality” for Palestinians.

Blinken also announced the US plans to reopen its Consulate General in occupied East Jerusalem, which had overseen relations with the PA before former President Donald Trump relocated the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem in 2018 – a move denounced by Palestinians and rights groups.

The Biden administration has said it will keep the embassy in Jerusalem.

Blinken also announced on Tuesday that Washington would replenish Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system, as the administration has repeatedly indicated it does not plan to heed the calls of some US legislators to curtail arms sales and unconditioned military aid to Israel in the wake of the violence.