Israel is to demolish the house of a Palestinian accused of shooting in the occupied West Bank, which has seen an uptick in raids by Israeli extremists during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, especially in Jerusalem al-Quds.
Israeli soldiers from the army engineering unit mapped a house belonging to a Palestinian detainee as a prelude to preparing a plan to raze it, the Palestinian Information Center reported on Thursday.
Muntaser Shalaby, who was detained in the village of Silwad in northern Ramallah on Wednesday, is accused of conducting a drive-by shooting at the Tapuah Junction south of Nablus in northern West Bank on Sunday.
Shalaby, 44, is from the nearby village of Turmus Ayya, where Israeli soldiers carried out a raid on Thursday morning before the army engineering unit began mapping the house.
According to the Israeli military, at least three settlers were wounded in the incident. Palestinian sources, however, refuted Israel’s claim that the wounded persons were settlers, saying the Israelis shot in the incident were soldiers.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip during the Six-Day War in 1967. It later had to withdraw from Gaza but has been occupying the other territories since.
About 700,000 Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built in the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds since then. The international community views the settlements as illegal under international law but has done little to pressure the Israeli regime to freeze or reverse its policies.
The occupied West Bank is home to some 2.5 million Palestinians.