2023-08-08 08:10:34
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Israeli security forces on Tuesday demolished the West Bank home of a Palestinian man accused of committing a deadly attack earlier this year, the army said, a new raid that would stoke tensions in the occupied territory.
The tactic of tearing down the family homes of suspected Palestinian attackers, which Israel has employed for decades, has come under harsh criticism from human rights groups, who see it as collective punishment, something prohibited under international law.
Opponents of the measure also raise doubts regarding its effectiveness, arguing that demolishing the homes of parents, spouses and children of alleged attackers, who are often not implicated in the attacks, and leaving them homeless only fuels the constant cycle of hate and violence.
Israel defends those demolitions as a deterrent tool to prevent future attacks. The far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which has taken a hard line once morest the Palestinians, has vowed to increase such demolitions as violence grows in the West Bank.
The Israeli army said its forces had entered the Askar refugee camp in the northern West Bank city of Nablus early Tuesday morning and demolished the apartment of Abdul Fattah Kharushah, 49, an alleged member of the group. armed with Hamas and suspected of shooting dead two Israeli brothers earlier this year in the town of Hawara.
The highway shooting that killed the two men, two brothers from the Har Bracha Jewish settlement, occurred on a highway following a deadly Israeli military raid in Nablus, sparking the worst outbreak of settler violence in decades. Israeli settlers stormed the town of Hawara following the shooting, burning dozens of Palestinian cars and businesses and killing one man.
Kharushah was killed in March in an Israeli military raid on the Jenin refugee camp.
Palestinian youths burned tires and hurled rocks and explosive devices at Israeli forces who stormed the Askar refugee camp on Tuesday to demolish Kharushah’s home, on the third floor of an apartment building.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported two Palestinians injured by shrapnel and two others injured by rubber bullets as Israeli soldiers tried to disperse the crowd. The Israeli army said it had also been fired upon by Palestinians at the scene.
The raid came at a difficult time in the West Bank, where fighting between Israelis and Palestinians has reached an intensity not seen in nearly two decades. Israeli troops this week killed three suspected Palestinian militants following a Palestinian gunman shot dead an Israeli security guard in downtown Tel Aviv.
More than 160 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire this year in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, according to a count by The Associated Press. Israel says most of the dead were militants, but youth stone-throwers protesting the military incursions and innocent bystanders have also been killed.
At least 26 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks on Israelis so far this year.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day War, along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. The Palestinians claim those territories to form a future state.
1691482801
#Israel #demolishes #house #alleged #Palestinian #assailant #fueling #tension #West #Bank
