Israeli forces demolish house of Palestinian man in West Bank after shooting operation

Israeli forces have demolished a five-story house belonging to the family of a Palestinian man who was killed after carrying out a shooting operation near an illegal settlement in the southern part of the occupied West Bank a few months ago.

The Palestinian Information Center, citing local sources, reported on Thursday that Israeli troops raided the West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron), surrounding a house owned by relatives of Muhammed Kamel al-Jabari, who carried out a shooting attack close to the illegal Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba last October, leaving an Israeli settler dead and five others injured.   

Israeli regime forces closed off all the roads leading to the house, and a number of troops were deployed on rooftops.  

They also evicted the residents of the buildings near Jabari’s house before blowing it up, which occurred amid ongoing clashes with Palestinian youths in the city.

Last February, an Israeli court approved the demolition of the house belonging to Jabari and rejected a petition filed by his family against the retaliatory measure.

Jabari’s family say an Israeli court issued a decision to demolish their house a few days ago, and that they were informed of the decision only a few hours before the raid by the regime forces.

Jabari, a Hamas resistance fighter, was shot dead by an off-duty Israeli soldier last October. His brother Wael had been serving life in Israeli prison before being freed and sent to the Gaza Strip in the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap deal in 2011.

The Palestinian Hamas resistance movement said at the time that resistance bullets are a practical response to Israel’s settlement expansion policies, and the crimes they are committing against the Palestinians.

Israel routinely demolishes Palestinian houses in the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds, claiming that the structures have been built without permits, which are almost impossible to obtain. They also sometimes order Palestinian owners to demolish their own houses or pay the costs of the demolition if they do not.

Palestinian resistance fighters’ bullets serve as practical answer to Israeli crimes: Hamas

Hamas says bullets fired in the retaliatory operation in the southern part of the West Bank are a practical response to Israeli crimes against Palestinians.

Israel has already occupied thousands of dunums of Palestinian agricultural land to construct and expand new illegal settler units in various areas in the West Bank.

More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and al-Quds.

All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. The United Nations Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.

Israeli forces have also recently been conducting overnight raids and killings in the northern occupied West Bank, mainly in the cities of Jenin and Nablus, where new groups of Palestinian resistance fighters have been formed.

They also killed at least 171 Palestinians in the West Bank and occupied East al-Quds last year, including more than 30 children. The United Nations has marked 2022 as the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank in 16 years.

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