On Tuesday morning, Israeli soldiers detonated a Palestinian home in Ni’lin town, west of the central West Bank city of Ramallah, rendering five family members homeless in an act of illegal collective punishment.
Media sources said more than fifty military vehicles, including the Army Corps of Engineers, invaded the village late at night before surrounding the home and forcing the family out.
They added that the soldiers forced the five family members of Mo’taz Salah Khawaja, 32, out of their 120 square meters home and wired it before detonating it in the early morning hours of Tuesday.
The demolished property is on the second floor of a four-story building and was about 120 square meters.
The soldiers forced the families, including at least one bed-bound elderly woman, in the building and the area out of their homes for many hours before wiring the Khawaja family home and detonating its inner walls.
The invasion and the destruction of the property led to protests in several neighborhoods in Ni’lin, especially the Eastern Neighborhood where the property is located before the soldiers fired many gas bombs, concussion grenades, and live rounds.
The soldiers fired live rounds, wounding two Palestinians in the arm and the shoulder, and many gas bombs, causing several residents to suffer the effects of tear gas inhalation.
It is worth mentioning that Al-Khawaja was killed on March 9, 2023, after a shooting attack in Tel Aviv, seriously wounding one Israeli, Or Eshkar, 32, who succumbed to his wounds on March 20. The Israeli army still refuses to transfer Mo’taz’s corpse to his family for burial.
The Israeli policy of punitive home demolitions is an illegal act of collective punishment that violates International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention, and various international resolutions.
|Israel’s collective punishment of Palestinians illegal and an affront to justice: UN expert | OHCHR|
