IDF informs family of alleged Palestinian terrorist it will raze their home

The military said Wednesday that it had informed the family of an alleged Palestinian terrorist that the apartment in which he lived in the northern West Bank village of Silat al-Harithiya is slated for demolition.

According to the Shin Bet security agency, a cell belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group was behind a deadly shooting attack in December in the northern West Bank, in which one man, Yehuda Dimentman, was killed and two others were lightly wounded.

One suspect had his home demolished last week, and two other suspects’ families were given demolition orders last month.

Omar Ahmed Yassin Jaradat’s family has been given the chance to appeal Wednesday’s demolition order.

Appeal attempts rarely succeed, though in some cases the court can limit the demolition order to only the parts of the house used by the terrorist.

An appeal submitted on behalf of one of the other suspects with an impending demolition order against their home has been denied by the High Court of Justice, while an appeal on behalf of a second suspect’s family is still being discussed, with a response expected in the coming days.

In December, troops came under fire while they first measured the buildings in order to determine the best way to raze the structures. There were no injuries to Israeli forces at the time.

Israeli authorities often take punitive action such as home demolitions before a conviction in cases of terrorist attacks. Israel defends the practice of razing the family homes of attackers as a deterrent against future assaults, and officials have argued that speed is essential, claiming that the deterrent factor degrades over time.

Over the years, however, a number of Israeli defense officials have questioned the efficacy of the practice, and human rights activists have denounced it as unfair collective punishment.