The home of a Palestinian accused of killing an Israeli settler last year was demolished by Israeli authorities on Saturday, provoking tensions.
According to an Israeli army statement, explosives demolished Omar Jaradat’s dwelling in Silat al-Harithiya hamlet, near the flashpoint town of Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank.
Palestinians threw stones and firebombs at Israeli forces, which soldiers replied to with semi-automatic fire, according to the report.
According to an AFP photographer on the scene, two Palestinians were injured.
As a large-scale manhunt for a pair of Palestinians suspected of killing three Israelis in an axe assault Thursday night near Tel Aviv continued, the fights heightened tensions in Israel and the West Bank.
Over the past month, police and Palestinians have also clashed at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Israeli-annexed Old City.
Explosives ripped through inside walls and punched a hole in Jaradat’s pink external wall, leaving the floors scattered with grey rubble.
On December 16, 2021, Israel charged Jaradat and two members of his family with murdering religious student Yehuda Dimentman, 25. As a car drove out of the Homesh wildcat settlement outpost, gunmen shot it with bullets. Two more people were injured in the attack.
Three other residences of Jaradat family members in Silat al-Harithiya were already razed by security personnel.
These operations in February and March also resulted in conflicts, with one Palestinian youth being killed by the army.
Israel regularly destroys the homes of individuals it blames for attacks on Israelis.
Critics have described the practice as a form of communal punishment. Israel claims to prevent assaults.
Around 475,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank, alongside 2.9 million Palestinians, in enclaves widely recognized as illegal under international law.
Since March 22, 18 individuals have been slain in anti-Israeli violence, including an Arab-Israeli police officer and two Ukrainians.
Palestinians carried out two of the deadly strikes in the Tel Aviv area.
During the same time period, 27 Palestinians and three Israeli Arabs died, including attackers and those slain by Israeli security forces in West Bank operations.
