TURMUS'AYYA, Palestinian Territories: The Israeli army said Thursday it demolished the home of a Palestinian woman with US citizenship whose estranged husband stands accused of fatally shooting a Jewish student in the occupied West Bank.
“Overnight... troops demolished the residence of the terrorist [Montasser] Shalabi, in the village of Turmus Ayya, northeast of Ramallah,” an army spokesperson said.
The demolition comes despite US discouragement of the policy.
Shalabi, 44, was arrested by Israeli forces in May after he allegedly fired on waiting passengers at a bus stop at Tapuah junction south of Nablus in the northern West Bank. The attack killed Yehuda Guetta, 19, a student at a seminary in the Itamar settlement and wounded two of his friends.
Sanaa Shalabi, 40, told AFP troops arrived at 1:00 am to place explosives around her home. She said the demolition lasted through the night.
“This is our life. What happened to us is normal. We were prepared for it,” she said.
She called her husband a “hero.”
Montasser Shalabi did not live in the home that was destroyed, according to the Israeli human rights organization Hamoked, which unsuccessfully contested its demolition before Israel’s Supreme Court.
Executive director Jessica Montell said the couple were estranged. Sanaa lived in the home with three of their seven children. The whole family are dual US nationals.
“The man accused of the attack doesn’t live in the house, he lives in the US and he comes once or twice a year,” Montell said.
Sanaa “was not in any way involved and didn’t know anything about the attack. We thought this should be grounds for not demolishing or just demolishing one room,” she added.
She said Shalabi suffered mental illness.
The US has expressed opposition to punitive home demolitions. A spokesman said the US embassy was “following” reports of the demolition.
“The home of an entire family should not be demolished for the actions of one individual,” the spokesman said.
The army said during the demolition “approximately 200 rioters hurled rocks and launched fireworks” at troops, who responded with “riot dispersal means.”
Israel razes home of Palestinian shooting suspect’s estranged wife
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Israel razes home of Palestinian shooting suspect’s estranged wife
- The demolition comes despite US discouragement of the policy
Syria Kurds chief says ‘all efforts’ being made to salvage deal with Damascus
- Abdi said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurds’ de facto army, remained committed to the deal
- The two sides were working toward “mutual understanding” on military integration and counter-terrorism
DAMASCUS: Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said Thursday that “all efforts” were being made to prevent the collapse of talks on an agreement with Damascus to integrate his forces into the central government.
The remarks came days after Aleppo saw deadly clashes between the two sides before their respective leaders ordered a ceasefire.
In March, Abdi signed a deal with Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa to merge the Kurds’ semi-autonomous administration into the government by year’s end, but differences have held up its implementation.
Abdi said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurds’ de facto army, remained committed to the deal, adding in a statement that the two sides were working toward “mutual understanding” on military integration and counter-terrorism, and pledging further meetings with Damascus.
Downplaying the year-end deadline, he said the deal “did not specify a time limit for its ending or for the return to military solutions.”
He added that “all efforts are being made to prevent the collapse of this process” and that he considered failure unlikely.
Abdi also repeated the SDF’s demand for decentralization, which has been rejected by Syria’s Islamist authorities, who took power after ousting longtime ruler Bashar Assad last year.
Turkiye, an important ally of Syria’s new leaders, sees the presence of Kurdish forces on its border as a security threat.
In Damascus this week, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan stressed the importance of the Kurds’ integration, having warned the week before that patience with the SDF “is running out.”
The SDF control large swathes of the country’s oil-rich north and northeast, and with the support of a US-led international coalition, were integral to the territorial defeat of the Daesh group in Syria in 2019.
Syria last month joined the anti-IS coalition and has announced operations against the jihadist group in recent days.
