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Israeli army demolishes West Bank homes of Palestinian attackers

Xinhua, November 14, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Israeli army demolished four houses in the West Bank overnight between Friday and Saturday that belong to Palestinians who carried out attacks against Israelis in recent months.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the demolition took place according to directives issued by Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon.

Three of the homes, situated in Nablus in the West Bank, belong to the families of the attackers responsible for the West Bank shooting attack on Oct. 1, in which a Jewish couple was killed.

The fourth home, situated in the Palestinian village of Silwad, about 12 km northeast of Ramallah, belongs to a Palestinian responsible for a June attack which killed one Israeli.

The Israeli Supreme Court on Thursday gave the green light to the demolitions, rejecting appeals against them filed by human rights groups who call the punitive measure "a collective punishment."

Israel has demolished hundreds of Palestinian houses since 1967, the year in which it occupied the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip territories, mainly as a punitive measure aimed at deterring Palestinians from carrying out attacks against Israelis in the future.

In early 2005, a Defense Ministry committee charged the measure is not affective in its aim to deter militants from committing attacks.

Nevertheless, the Israeli government decided recently to continue practicing the demolitions, and setting up a mechanism that would expedite the process, following a weeks-long wave of violence between Israelis and Palestinians, which claimed the lives of 14 Israelis and more than 80 Palestinians.

The government also decided to deny Palestinian families the option of rebuilding their demolished homes. Endit