Clashes erupt as Israel razes Palestinian home over attack

Clashes erupted yesterday as Israel’s military demolished the home of a Palestinian accused of involvement in a February attack outside Jerusalem’s Old City that killed a policewoman, officials said.The family home of Bilal Abu Zeid in Qabatiya, in the north of the occupied West Bank, was destroyed by a bulldozer around 2am (2300 GMT), Israel’s army said.Clashes erupted when the military convoy arrived, with Israel’s military saying soldiers responded after being targeted by Molotov cocktails and fire from improvised guns.The army confirmed three Palestinians were hit.Palestinian officials reported six Palestinians wounded, including two by live fire and four by rubber bullets.Israel regularly destroys the homes of Palestinian attackers in what it says is a deterrent.Rights groups and Palestinians condemn the practice as collective punishment that forces family members to pay for the crimes of others.Abu Zeid is accused of having assisted three Palestinian attackers in the February 3 incident that killed the police officer and badly wounded another outside the Old City’s Damascus Gate.He is currently imprisoned by Israel.Details on how he allegedly assisted the attackers were not provided.The three Palestinians were armed with rifles, knives and explosives, Israeli authorities said at the time, and the policewoman died from a gunshot wound to the head.The three attackers were killed at the scene and their family homes were demolished two months later.Since October, around 10 Palestinians from Qabatiya have been killed while carrying out attacks against Israelis.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year expedited home demolitions of Palestinian attackers in a bid to deter the violence.Meanwhile, a Palestinian stabbed two Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank yesterday before being shot and arrested, months after his brother was killed while carrying out an attack, the Israeli army said.“An assailant armed with a knife stabbed two IDF (Israel Defence Forces) soldiers during routine activity near Al-Arroub,” an army statement said, referring to an area south of Bethlehem in the southern West Bank.“Forces shot and detained the assailant,” it added.An army spokeswoman said the two soldiers’ wounds were not life threatening.The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the man shot as Mustafa Baradeah from Al-Arroub refugee camp.His brother Ibrahim was killed in April after carrying out an attack with an axe that left a soldier lightly wounded, the Israeli army and a Palestinian security source said.Al-Arroub is located about halfway between Bethlehem and the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron, where many of the attackers in a recent wave of violence have come from.