Israel army razes home of Palestinian in Ramallah

RAMALLAH: Israeli troops demolished the home of a Palestinian on Saturday, completing a nightlong incursion into the Palestiniancontrolled city of Ramallah.

The raid on the West Bank city where Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has his headquarters comes as Israeli forces search for the perpetrator of a Thursday shooting that killed two Israeli soldiers.

The incursion late on Friday triggered clashes with angry residents following a week of rising tensions.

Both army and border police units took part in the operation, including members of the commando unit in which the soldier was serving when he was killed by a slab hurled from a building during an army raid.

Several hundred soldiers entered the city’s Al Amari refugee camp late on Friday, leaving on Saturday morning, AFP journalists reported.

Inside the camp, soldiers demolished the home of Islam Abu Huamid, who was arrested in June for the soldier’s killing. The family house was completely destroyed in a controlled explosion, AFP correspondents at the scene said.

cold night

Neighbours said several hundred residents, including children, were ordered out of their homes and kept in a sports field in the cold of night while the army operation continued.

“The weather was very cold. A lot of the elderly, the children and the women were ill,” said Samir Al Tukhi, one of those kept outside.

It is the third time the house has been destroyed, with several of Abu Huamid’s brothers also jailed by Israel on terrorism charges, while one was killed.

‘We Will rebuild’

Their mother, Latifa, told AFP the demolition didn’t matter to her. “The first time we rebuilt it, the second time we also rebuilt it. One hundred or one thousand times we will rebuild and they demolish it.”

Israel regularly demolishes the homes of Palestinians.

It argues it is a deterrent though critics say it amounts to collective punishment.

In clashes on Friday, Mahmoud Nakhla, 17, was killed by Israeli fire near the Jalazone refugee camp outside Ramallah, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Agence France-presse A Palestinian woman (top) shields her injured husband as security forces scuffle with him (right) during a rally of Hamas supporters in the occupied West Bank town of Hebron on Friday.

Reuters The house of Palestinian family, Abu Humaid, is seen after it was blown up by the Israeli forces in the Al Amari refugee camp in Ramallah on Saturday.