IOF kill two Palestinians, injure others in Ramallah

Hundreds of Israeli soldiers raided the Qalandia refugee camp in the West Bank early Monday to destroy the home of a Palestinian accused of killing an Israeli and shot two residents to death during clashes before pulling out, Palestinians and the Israeli army said.

Palestinian attacks, mainly stabbings, have killed 14 Israelis, and at least 83 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, including 51 Israel said were involved in assaults.

The funeral for Laith Ashraf Manasra, 20, and Ahmad Abu al-Aish, 28, was held on Monday and their bodies were laid to rest, the Palestinian Ma’an news agency reported.

It is time for states to condemn terrorism against us like they condemn terrorism anywhere else in the world, ” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as he drew parallels between the massive attacks by Isis-linked terrorists that rocked Paris Friday and attacks against Israelis.

Israel has sought to expedite demolitions of suspects’ homes in response to the surge of violence that began in October.

The army said no Israeli soldiers were wounded.

Qalandiya camp was established in 1949 in the wake of the creation of Israel and has grown into a densely populated town with 11,000 registered refugees.

Adnan al-Husseini, the Palestinian governor of Jerusalem, blamed Israel’s occupation for the violence.

He cited an example from a religious lesson taught on PATV, during which the teacher said: “If one fish in the sea fights another fish, I’m sure the Jews are behind it”.

While recognizing Israel’s “serious security challenges”, a senior United Nations official today called its punitive demolition of the homes of alleged attackers “inherently unjust” and against global law, noting that 20 Palestinians, eight of them children, were made homeless in the past three days.

“Cases of excessive use of force by Israeli forces against Palestinians, including a few which appear to amount to summary executions, continue to be reported and a few have been captured on video”, said the UN Special Rapporteurs on the situation of human rights in the OPT, Makarim Wibisono, and on summary executions, Christof Heyns.

Israel argues that demolitions are effective as a deterrent.

According to the Israeli military, soldiers came under fire while razing the Qalandia home of Muhammad Abu Shaheen, who Israeli officials say shot and killed Jewish settler Danny Gonen in June in the West Bank.

Those operations also sparked clashes in which nine Palestinians were wounded, two of them by live ammunition. More than 80 Palestinians have been killed during the attacks and by harsh Israeli countermeasures at violent demonstrations.

One-hour firefight Defence minister Moshe Ya’alon defended the actions of the soldiers during the one-hour firefight.

“If a survey is conducted among Palestinians about Friday’s attacks, I can’t wait to see what it reveals”, Marcus said dryly.