Wave of demolition by explosives: Israeli security forces demolish 14 homes as collective punishment
Full title: Wave of demolition by explosives: Israeli security forces demolish 14 homes as collective punishment – more than half belonged to neighbors
Published:
17 Nov 2015
On 15 November 2015, about half an hour after midnight, a large number of Israeli security forces entered Qalandia Refugee Camp in the West Bank in order to demolish by detonation the home of Muhammad Abu Shahin, a Palestinian held on charges of killing Danny Gonen, an Israeli, on 19 June 2015. Until the arrest, Abu Shahin lived with his wife and two daughters – both of them minors – in an apartment he rented from relatives on the top floor of a three-story building. A few days earlier, on 12 November, Israel’s High Court of Justice (HCJ) rejected a petition against the planned demolition filed by human rights organization HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual. Consequently, Abu Shahin’s wife and daughters vacated the apartment and moved into a vacant apartment located on the second floor of the building.
Security forces called on loudspeakers to the residents of nearby houses, instructing them to leave their homes and move about 100 meters away. When Abu Shahin’s apartment was blown up, the apartment on the floor below it was also damaged, as was an apartment in a nearby building that was home to four people, including two minors. Both apartments were severely damaged and are no longer habitable. Another five apartments in nearby buildings were also damaged, but to a lesser extent. Initial information gathered by B’Tselem indicates that while the security forces were in the refugee camp on the demolition mission, an exchange of gunfire developed between them and local residents; Ahmad Abu al-‘Eish, 30, and Laith As’ad, 20, were killed by Israeli gunfire. Three other Palestinians were taken to hospital after sustaining wounds from live fire or rubber-coated metal bullets. B’Tselem’s investigation of the incident is under way.
The day before, in the early hours of Saturday 14 November, Israeli security forces came to the city of Nablus and the village of Silwad, Ramallah District, and blew up five apartments as collective punishment for attacks against Israelis carried out by relatives of the homes’ inhabitants. The force of the blasts severely damaged six other apartments, making them uninhabitable, and caused some damage to 16 other structures nearby. In Nablus, security forces blew up four apartments that were home to relatives of the three Palestinians suspected of killing Israelis Na’ama and Eitam Henkin on 1 October 2015, leaving fourteen people homeless. The force of the blast destroyed six other apartments that were not slated for demolition, so the actions of Israel’s security forces left another sixteen persons homeless.
http://www.btselem.org/punitive_demolitions/20151117_security_forced_demolish_14_homes
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Would they be wrong to?
