Days of Palestine – Jenin
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) razed on Tuesday morning the family houses of two prisoners in Silat ad-Dhahr town, northwest of Jenin, according to local and security sources.
A sizable Israeli military force, comprising over 150 military vehicles, including armored bulldozers, barged its way into the northern West Bank town from different directions before midnight to demolish the family houses of Mohammad Jaradat as well as Gheith and Omar Jaradat, currently in Israeli custody.
The Jaradats is accused of killing an Israeli settler in a shooting attack near the evacuated colonial settlement outpost of Homesh, north of Nablus, in mid-December.
Dozens of heavily-armed soldiers cordoned off the town and were deployed throughout its streets and alleys, taking measurements of the properties of the prisoner’s families before detonating and destroying them.
During ensuing confrontations, the soldiers opened fire towards the town residents, injuring at least one with a live round in the hand and seven others with rubber-coated steel bullets.
Several other protestors sustained injures from concussion grenade shrapnel, and dozens of others suffocated from the effects of tear gas inhalation. Still, another sustained injuries after being run over by a military vehicle.
The soldiers prevented ambulances from entering the town to treat and transport the injured as well as journalists from covering the unfolding events.
The Israeli military claimed that a Palestinian purportedly rammed his car into the troops in an armored vehicle in the town, injuring two. The car driver was detained.
On February 14, the military punitively detonated the family house of Mahmoud Ghaleb Jaradat, gunned down a 17-year-old teen, and wounded at least 17 others, including two critical injuries.
Israel usually resorts to punitively demolishing the family homes of Palestinians accused of being involved in attacks against Israelis as a means of deterrence, a policy that Israel does not apply to Israeli settlers who were involved in fatal attacks against Palestinians.
The policy was widely condemned by human rights groups as “a collective punishment” and “a war crime and crime against humanity”.
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