Occupation troops shoot dead Palestinian who attacked soldier
Regime claims it arrested arsonists who burned to death Palestinian Dawabsheh toddler
An Israeli soldier was wounded in a West Bank shooting attack yesterday and his alleged assailant was shot dead, the regime’s army said in a statement, without giving further details.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said that a Palestinian was shot dead at the scene of the incident, at the West Bank village of Hizmeh, north of occupied Jerusalem.
Israeli media said that an Israeli civilian was also injured.
Early yesterday Israeli troops demolished the family home of a Palestinian the army claimed organised the fatal attack that sparked the current unrest, the shooting of a Jewish colonist couple as they drove in the northern West Bank with their young children.
A spokeswoman for the regime said that troops in the northern West Bank city of Nablus destroyed the home of Rajeb Aliweh early in the morning, accusing him of being a member of Hamas.
The organisation has not claimed responsibility for killing the Henkins, who were shot in front of their young children as they drove on a West Bank road between the northern colonies of Itamar and Elon Moreh.
Knife and gun attack
The October 1 shooting was followed two days later by a knife and gun attack in occupied Jerusalem, in which a Palestinian killed two people and wounded two others, including a child. The army entered Nablus at around 2am (0000 GMT) Thursday and blew up the second floor apartment several hours later, Palestinian police said.
Such demolitions, heavily criticised by rights groups as collective punishment, have regularly resulted in clashes between Israeli occupation forces and Palestinians.
Israel has stepped up the razing of homes as it seeks to halt a wave of knife, gun and carramming attacks that began in October.
Meanwhile, members of a Jewish terror group have been arrested over a July arson attack on a Palestinian home in the West Bank that killed a toddler and his parents, Israeli police said yesterday.
A police statement did not say how many suspects were in custody. It said a court order banning disclosure of their names and other details of the case was in effect.
Eighteen-month-old Ali Dawabsheh was killed in the July 31 blaze in Duma, a village outside Nablus. His father, Saad Dawabsheh, succumbed on August 9 to injuries suffered in the fire, and the boy’s mother, Riham, died in hospital four weeks later.
Ali’s four-year-old brother remains in hospital.
The police statement said “youths belonging to a Jewish terror group” suspected of carrying out attacks on Palestinians were arrested over the past few days, and there were “solid suspicions” linking them to the arson at the Dawabshehs’ home.