HEBRON: Israel on Thursday demolished the West Bank homes of four Palestinians accused of a deadly attack, sparking clashes with stone-throwing protesters, the army and an AFP journalist said.
The houses in the village of Beit Kahil near Hebron in the occupied West Bank were home to men who were “part of the squad that carried out the stabbing attack” which killed an off-duty soldier in August, the army said.
Clashes broke out during the demolitions, the army said, with Palestinians hurling “rocks and burnt tires at troops.”
“In response, troops used riot dispersal means.”
Residents stared at piles of concrete after bulldozers reduced one house to rubble, an AFP photographer said.
After the demolitions one Palestinian died in a car accident at a junction near Hebron.
Palestinian official news agency Wafa said his car was hit by an Israeli military bulldozer, but the army said he drove into the stationary vehicle.
“A Palestinian vehicle deviated off the road and hit the (Israeli military) vehicle, which had stopped on the side of the road,” an army spokeswoman told AFP, without confirming the death.
Wafa named the dead man as Mohammed Al-Nawajaa, saying his son was also injured in the incident.
In August, off-duty soldier Israeli Dvir Sorek was ambushed and killed, and his body was dumped near a settlement in the West Bank. He had been studying at a Jewish seminary in the settlement.
Israel routinely demolishes the homes of those accused of carrying out attacks.
It argues that such measures act as a deterrent, but critics say it amounts to collective punishment.
No protests
Meanwhile, Palestinian protests along the Gaza-Israel border have been canceled for the third week, organizers said on Thursday, amid declining turnout and fears of a fresh conflict in the Gaza Strip.
A statement by the organizing committee said it had decided to postpone this Friday’s marches to “avoid giving an opportunity to the Zionist enemy (Israel)” and due to “the very dangerous security conditions” after a deadly flareup in Gaza earlier this month.
It argued that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was looking for an opportunity to divert attention after being indicted on corruption charges and a new conflict with Gaza could help him do so.
The protests, which began in March 2018 and are backed by Gaza’s Islamist rulers Hamas, initially attracted tens of thousands of people weekly, but numbers have declined dramatically.
The rallies were canceled the two previous weeks after a flare-up between Israel and a Islamic Jihad (IJ) militant group in Gaza.
Israel assassinated a senior IJ leader in the strip on Nov. 12, sparking a two-day flareup in which 35 Palestinians were killed. No Israelis died.
Since the protests began in March 2018 at least 346 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza, more than half during the border demonstrations.
Protesters are calling for Israel to lift its decade-long blockade of Gaza as well as for a return to their ancestral homes now inside Israel.
Israel has fought three wars with Hamas and allied groups in Gaza since 2008.
