Israeli security forces on Wednesday tore down a tent in which a Jerusalem Palestinian family had been living since being evicted from their nearby house earlier this month.

The tent housed Fawzia al Kurd and her ailing husband since their November 9 expulsion from their home of 52 years that had become a symbol of Palestinian resistance against the pressure of Jewish settlers seeking to gain more land in Arab east Jerusalem.

Security forces also tore down two smaller tents set up by supporters. The tents were set up on an empty field just a few hundred metres (yards) from the house in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood.

Two people were detained after scuffles between police and supporters of the Kurd family.

Israeli authorities said the tents were erected without permit on state land but the Kurd family say they were renting the land from its Palestinian owner.

Foreign diplomats, many of whom live in Sheikh Jarrah, had expressed support for the Palestinian family and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who was in Israel earlier this month had protested against moves to expel them.

On July 16, the Israeli High Court ruled in favour of Israeli settlers who were already occupying a wing of the house and were demanding the expulsion of the Kurd family from the property.

The saga started with the turbulent creation of the Jewish state in 1948, when the family fled Israel to east Jerusalem, which was then under Jordanian control.

Eight years later, they and 27 other families were given houses by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

But in 1967, Israel captured east Jerusalem during the Six-Day War, eventually annexing it in defiance of international law.

A Jewish organisation later registered under its name the title to three hectares (nearly seven acres) of land on which the house sits, and 10 Jewish families eventually moved into the neighbourhood.

The Kurd family says the 19th century Ottoman document on which the title is based is a fake.