Ramallah – The Israeli army, on Thursday said that it had destroyed the homes of two Palestinian prisoners involved in a West Bank bombing that killed an Israeli teenager in August.
According to Palestinian sources, Bulldozers were used to destroy one home in a village near the West Bank city of Ramallah, while soldiers used hand tools to make an apartment in Ramallah unlivable.
The Israeli army said that clashes broke out while the homes were being razed, with dozens of Palestinian youths throwing stones and petrol bombs at soldiers, as well as setting tyres on fire.
Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence service said in September that three men, all from the Ramallah area North of Jerusalem and all members of the militant Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), were arrested over attack.
PFLP members are said to have planned a bombing on Aug. 23 that killed a 17-year-old Israeli woman in the occupied West Bank and severely injured her 46-year-old father and 19-year-old brother.
According to Shin Bet the Head of the group was arrested several times because of terrorist activities. The 44-year-old had constructed the bomb and detonated it when he saw the family.
Israel’s policy of destroying the homes of suspected, convicted or even killed Palestinian attackers has been condemned by human rights organisations as a war crime and form of collective punishment.
The attackers’ families are often left homeless after the demolitions. Israel justifies its action, saying it was to deter future attackers.
(dpa/NAN)
