Tensions have risen in the West Bank after a spate of deadly attacks.
By ANNA AHRONHEIMManhunt for Ariel terrorist (IDF SPOKESPERSON'S OFFICE)(photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S OFFICE)
The IDF announced on Tuesday that it has informed the family of the Ariel terrorist that his home will be demolished.Last week, Omar Abu Lila fatally stabbed 19-year-old St.-Sgt. Gal Keidan at the Ariel junction and then stole his gun, shooting him at close range before opening fire at vehicles passing through the junction, and fatally hitting 47-year-old father of 11 Rabbi Ahiad Ettinger.Abu Lila then stole a car and drove to the nearby Gitai junction, where he again opened fire, striking St.-Sgt. Alexander Dvorsky who remains in hospital.He then fled on foot into the nearby village of Burqin and was killed in a shootout with authorities two days later in the Palestinian village of Abwein, north of Ramallah.Tensions have risen in the West Bank after a spate of deadly attacks.In its statement on Tuesday morning, the military also said that a demolition order was signed by Central Command Commander Maj.-Gen. Nadav Padan for the home of the Palestinian suspected in the brutal rape and murder of an Israeli teenage girl in February.The family of Arafat Irfaiya was notified of the military’s intent to demolish their home earlier this month. Their appeal against the demolition was rejected by an Israeli court.Irfaiya was remanded on charges of the murder and rape of 19-year-old Ori Ansbacher, whose nude body was found with multiple stab wounds in the forest of Ein Yael in February. The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said that he “left his home in Hebron with a knife and made his way to the village of Beit Jala,” just south of Jerusalem. From there, he “walked to the forest, where he saw Ori, attacked and murdered her.”While some NGOs and human rights organizations criticize the army for using collective punishment by demolishing the homes of terrorist’s families, the IDF believes that such demolitions are a key deterrent to stop other potential attackers.Nevertheless, homes razed by the Israeli military have been rebuilt, most recently by the family of Ashraf Walid Suleiman Na’alwa, who shot dead two Israeli civilians in the Barkan industrial zone in October.
Pictures of the construction of the new home in the West Bank village of Shuweika near Tulkarm were published on social media on Sunday, three months after it was partially demolished by the military.
