The Israeli occupation army at dawn Saturday demolished the family home of the 15-year-old prisoner Murad Ad’ies in Beit Amra town, southwest of al-Khalil city.
Ad’ies is accused of carrying out a stabbing attack and killing a female settler in Otniel settlement, south of al-Khalil, on January 19, 2016, AFP Reported.
Eyewitnesses said that a large number of Israeli troops encircled the town at dawn and dozens of them occupied the rooftops of some homes as others were storming the house of the teenager.
According to the eyewitnesses, the troops forcibly evacuated the family members from the house without allowing them to take anything with them and also forced out other families in neighboring homes before embarking on demolishing it.
After the house was leveled to the ground, violent clashes broke out between local young men and the occupation troops. Although the family of Ad’ies had told the Israeli higher court in its petition that it had no other place to live in, the latter approved a demolition order issued against the house.
An Israeli army spokesperson said that the overnight punitive demolition was carried out because Mourad was accused of stabbing an Israeli settler to death on Jan. 17.
The Palestinian teenager allegedly “infiltrated” the illegal Israeli settlement of Otniel and stabbed 39-year-old Dafna Meir, a mother of six, before fleeing the scene. Meir was treated for severe injuries before succumbing to her wounds.
After a two-day manhunt, Israeli forces detained Mourad — then 15 years old — on suspicions of carrying out the attack.
The demolition policy is used by Israel as a mass punishment measure aimed only at Palestinian families whose relatives have carried out or are accused of carrying out attacks against Israelis. In separate incidents, Israeli soldiers raided homes in other areas near Amra town and Arrested a teenager named Muataz Shahada, according to local sources.
On Thursday, Israeli authorities raided the family homes of the two gunmen to take measurements for their demolitions. According to Middle East Eye, four other families will be left homeless when the structures are destroyed.
In response the attack, Israeli authorities also froze more than 83,000 permits allowing Palestinians to enter Israel and East Jerusalem during Ramadan. All passages in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip have been sealed until midnight Monday. Weekly visitations by elderly Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Al-Aqsa Mosque have also been canceled.
Newly-appointed Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman also issued an order on Thursday to suspend the return of all Palestinian bodies killed during suspected attacks on Israelis, claiming that the measure could prevent future attacks, in spite of his predecessor Moshe Yaalon having argued the policy had only served to exacerbate tensions with Palestinians.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said on Friday the measures “may amount to collective punishment and will only increase the sense of injustice and frustration felt by Palestinians in this very tense time.”
While “Israel has a human rights obligation to bring those responsible to account for their crimes,” he continued, “the measures taken against the broader population punish not the perpetrators of the crime, but tens — maybe hundreds — of thousands of innocent Palestinians.”
