The Israeli army on Thursday demolished the home of a Palestinian accused of carrying out an attack in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank in November that killed two Israelis.
Clashes broke out the night the army entered the city, an AFP journalist reported. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, six people were injured in the Israeli raid, most of them lightly.
The Israeli army used explosives to destroy the first floor of the small building where Eslam Froukh lived, who was arrested by Israeli security forces in December and accused of carrying out an attack at the entrance to Jerusalem in November.
A 15-year-old Israeli-Canadian teenager and an Israeli in their 50s died from their injuries in the attack.
“The house was destroyed after an appeal to the[Israeli]Supreme Court against the destruction was rejected,” the army said in a statement.
Israel regularly demolishes the homes of Palestinians accused of anti-Israeli attacks. The government defends the deterrent effect of this policy, but its critics denounce collective punishment of families on the streets.
Oum Eslam Froukh, Eslam’s mother, told AFP that the demolition policy “only fuels hatred and (the desire for) revenge”.
Palestinians threw stones and explosives at Israeli army vehicles, an AFP journalist at the scene observed.
The army reported “violent unrest” and said it opened fire and used means to disperse riots. “Those affected have been identified,” she said, adding that no soldiers were injured.
Israeli military incursions are rare in central Ramallah.
“It was a long night, from 11pm to morning, there was tear gas and young men were injured,” Oum Mohammed Froukh, who is part of the family, told AFP. Froukh lives in the same neighborhood.
Eslam Froukh, a Palestinian from East Jerusalem, territory occupied and annexed by Israel, was permitted to reside in Israel but lived in Ramallah. According to the army, he acted alone in the attack in Jerusalem and was “moved by his Salafist-jihadist ideology” and “identified with the Islamic State group”.
The West Bank is a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.