RAMALLAH: Israeli troops demolished the home of a Palestinian accused of the May killing of a soldier yesterday, completing a night-long incursion into the Palestinian-controlled city of Ramallah. The raid on the West Bank city where Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has his headquarters comes as Israeli forces search for the perpetrator of a Thursday shooting attack that killed two Israeli soldiers. The incursion late Friday triggered clashes with angry residents following a week of rising tensions.
Both army and border police units took part in the operation, including members of the commando unit in which the soldier was serving when he was killed by a slab hurled from a building during an army raid. Several hundred soldiers entered the city's Al-Amari refugee camp late Friday, leaving yesterday morning, AFP journalists reported. "During the operation, dozens of Palestinians instigated a number of violent riots. The rioters hurled rocks towards the forces, who responded with riot dispersal means," the army said.
Inside the camp, soldiers demolished the home of Islam Abu Hamid, who was arrested in June for the soldier's killing. The family house was completely destroyed in a controlled explosion, AFP correspondents at the scene said. Neighbors said several hundred residents, including children, were ordered out of their homes and kept in a sports field in the cold of night while the army operation continued. "The weather was very cold. A lot of the elderly, the children and the women were ill," said Samir Al-Tukhi, one of those kept outside.
The Abu Hamid family home has been destroyed before and rebuilt. Two other Abu Hamid sons are in Israeli custody, charged with the killings of five Israelis, and another two face lengthy incarceration for serious security offences. A sixth Abu Hamid son was killed by Israeli forces in 1994 after being involved in a deadly ambush against an Israeli intelligence officer in the West Bank. According to the indictment against him, Islam Abu Hamid told interrogators that he wanted to avenge the injury of one of his brothers in a previous Israeli army raid.
Their mother, Latifa, told AFP the demolition didn't matter to her. "The first time we rebuilt it, the second time we also rebuilt it. One hundred or one thousand times we will rebuild and they demolish it," she said. "What can we do? This is an enemy who thinks that by doing such actions they will terrorize us and make us fear them. On the contrary, our animosity becomes stronger, and with it our perseverance and strength."
Israel regularly demolishes the homes of Palestinians who carry out attacks against Israelis. It argues it is a deterrent though critics say it amounts to collective punishment. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced pressure from rightwing rivals and Jewish settlers for a strong response to the killing of the soldiers on Thursday. It was the third deadly attack by Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank in two months and set off demonstrations by settler groups on whose support Netanyahu's government depends. In clashes on Friday, a Palestinian teenager was killed by Israeli fire, the Palestinian health ministry said. The army did not comment on the death. - Agencies