Israeli army demolishes West Bank homes of Palestinian attackers

In The Los Angeles Times article yesterday about Israel’s demolition of homes of Palestinian terrorists who killed Israelis (“Israel knocks down homes in West Bank”, by Maher Abukhater and Batsheva Sobelman), a journalistic wrecking ball spells disaster for multiple basic facts.

So far in the two months of violence, 14 Israelis have died, mostly in stabbing attacks, while 81 Palestinians have been killed.

The two Palestinian men who confessed to the shooting deaths of Naama and Eitam Henkinin the West Bank last month carried out the attack to avenge a fatal arson attack on the home of a Palestinian family in July, presumably carried out by Jewish settlers.

An Israeli army spokesperson said that Israeli forces entered the camp in order to demolish the home of Muhammad Abu Shahin, a suspect in the killing of an Israeli settler on June 19 near the settlement of Dolev northwest of Ramallah.

Israel’s internal security service said it had seized a weapon and a vehicle used in the shooting, and that the suspect had admitted his involvement in Friday’s attack, which killed a rabbi and his son as they were driving with family south of the city of Hebron.

“It’s not that Israelis and Palestinians don’t want peace but that the conventional approach has had setbacks”, Blair told the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem on Friday.

On Saturday, Israel demolished three homes in the West Bank belonging to attackers who killed an Israeli couple in front of their children in the West Bank on October 1.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed condolences and vowed to hunt down the attackers.

The current round of bloodshed was triggered by unrest at a major Jerusalem shrine revered by both Muslims and Jews, and quickly spread to Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza border. Israeli security forces said his father and brother turned him in, fearing that their home would be razed.

Hundreds of Palestinians threw firebombs and rocks at Israeli forces while they were demolishing the home, and troops fired rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the protesters, the military said.

Palestinian leaders, however, have linked the attacks against Israel to what they describe as defense of the Temple Mount. Palestinians say the violence is due to a lack of hope for gaining independence.

Yusra Haj-Hamad, 32, the sister of one of the accused attackers, Yehiya, said dozens of soldiers had surrounded their home after midnight, bursting in and ordering everyone out as they drilled holes for the explosives.