IDF destroys West Bank home of Palestinian accused of killing Israeli brothers

Paul Godfrey
·2 min read
259
UPI
Israeli forces said Tuesday that they had destroyed the house of a Hamas fighter they say was responsible for the February shooting deaths of a soldier and his younger brother in the West Bank. Photo courtesy IDF

Aug. 8 (UPI) -- The Israeli army and border force officers blew up the home of a deceased Palestinian suspected of shooting dead an Israeli soldier and his younger brother in an overnight raid on an occupied-West Bank refugee camp, authorities said Tuesday.

Soldiers destroyed Abdel Fattah Hussein Kharousha's house in the Askar camp near Nablus in retaliation for the alleged February attack in the northern West Bank town of Huwara in which Sgt. Maj. Hillel Menachem Yaniv and Yagel Yaakov Yaniv were murdered, the Israeli Defense Forces said in a Twitter post.

Violence broke out during the operation to demolish the home of the late-Hamas fighter as the IDF said its troops came under attack from gunmen and rioters throwing explosives and stones. Soldiers used anti-riots tactics to disperse protestors and no personnel were injured.

Israel routinely razes the homes of terrorists as a matter of policy, but Kharousha's home was still being lived in by family members who had nothing to do with the attack, according to HaMoked, an Israel-based group advocating for the rights of Palestinians.

Kharousha, 49, who allegedly shot dead the brothers, aged 21 and 19, as they drove through Huwara, was later killed in an IDF raid on the Jenin refugee camp in March along with five other Palestinians, all in their 20s.

Israeli soldiers reportedly called in anti-tank missile fire after laying siege to a house in which they believed Kharousha was holed up and the occupants refused to surrender.

The shooting of the brothers amid an escalation in West Bank violence since early 2022, sparked retaliatory attacks against Palestinians by Israeli settlers who torched houses, cars and assaulted people.

In the months since the beginning of the year, terror attacks in the West Bank and Israel have killed 26 people and seriously injured others, while 168 Palestinians have been killed, mainly while fighting with security forces or launching attacks, but some were civilians killed in murky situations or by Israeli settlers.