IDF gives home demolition notice to family of terrorist who killed Yotam Ovadia

In overnight West Bank raids, soldiers also arrest 11 Palestinian suspects, seize guns, and ‘terror funds’

Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.

Israeli soldiers post a demolition notice on the home of a Palestinian terrorist from the West Bank village of Kobar who stabbed to death an Israeli man last month, on August 13, 2018. (Israel Defense Forces)
Israeli soldiers post a demolition notice on the home of a Palestinian terrorist from the West Bank village of Kobar who stabbed to death an Israeli man last month, on August 13, 2018. (Israel Defense Forces)

The Israeli military on Monday posted a demolition order on the home of a Palestinian terrorist who stabbed to death an Israeli man in a West Bank settlement last month, the army said.

On the night of July 26, 17-year-old Muhammad Yousef from the Palestinian village of Kobar in the central West Bank entered the Adam settlement, some 18 kilometers (11 miles) away, and attacked two residents of the community outside a playground, before he was shot dead by a third.

Yousef stabbed father-of-two Yotam Ovadia, 31, in the upper body multiple times, killing him. He also seriously wounded a 58-year-old man.

The third Adam resident, 41-year-old Assaf Raviv, went outside to investigate the disturbance and, realizing that an attack was occurring, shot the Palestinian terrorist three times, killing him.

Raviv was also stabbed and lightly injured during the incident.

Yotam Ovadia, who was killed in a terror attack in the West Bank settlement of Adam on July 26, 2018 Courtesy)

Ovadia was father to a 2-year-old child and a 7-month-old baby. The Brinks security company announced on its Facebook page that he worked there as a technician.

In the days following the deadly attack, the military raided Yousef’s family home and began taking measurements of the building in order to prepare it for demolition. In the pre-dawn hours of Monday morning, the military formally notified the family that the home was slated for destruction.

The Yousefs will now have an opportunity to appeal the Israel Defense Forces’ decision, though the chances of overturning it are slim as the High Court of Justice has rarely intervened in these types of cases.

Israel says the practice of demolishing terrorists’ homes is an effective means of discouraging future attacks, though it has been criticized by human rights groups as a form of collective punishment and by some analysts as an ineffective deterrent measure.

Elsewhere in the West Bank on Sunday night and early Monday morning, Israeli security forces arrested 11 Palestinian suspects, believed to have taken part in terrorist activities, violent riots, or rock throwing, the army said.

IDF soldiers also found and confiscated a gun and ammunition belt in the Ramallah area of the central West Bank.

Israeli troops also seized “thousands of shekels of terror funds” in the Jenin area of the northern West Bank, which the military said was to be used for terrorist activities.

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