JERUSALEM (Xinhua/NAN) – The Israeli army said on Thursday that its forces demolished the family home of a Palestinian-American accused of carrying out a deadly gun attack in the Israel-occupied West Bank in May.
Video footage on Israeli media showed the two-storey home of the Palestinian-American identified as Muntasser Shalaby in the village of Turmus Ayya collapsing after a series of controlled explosions.
The Israeli military wrote on Twitter that the army demolished overnight the home after the Israeli Supreme Court had rejected a petition by the suspect’s family in June.
Israel said on May 2, Shalaby committed a drive-by shooting attack in the West Bank that killed Yehuda Guetta, a 19-year-old Yeshiva (Jewish seminary) student and injured two others.
He was arrested four days after the attack and indicted in an Israeli court on June 10.
His family petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court for cancellation of the demolition order, saying Shalaby and his family were estranged for several years and he spent most of his time in the United States.
However, the court rejected the petition.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy in Israel has called for a halt to the demolition and to “refrain from unilateral steps that exacerbate tensions and undercut efforts to advance a negotiated two-state solution.
“As we stated numerous times, the home of an entire family should not be demolished for the actions of one individual,’’ the embassy said in the statement. (Xinhua/NAN)
