IDF issues demolition order for home of terrorist who killed 3 Israelis near Ariel

Tamir Avihai, 50, Michael Ladygin, 36, and Motti Ashkenazi, 59, were stabbed and rammed to death by Muhammed Souf, 18, during West Bank attack on November 15

By Emanuel Fabian 15 January 2023, 9:48 pm 0 Edit

Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent.

Israeli troops measure the home of Muhammed Souf, who killed three in a terror attack near Ariel, in the West Bank village of Hares, on November 16, 2022. (Israel Defense Forces)

The Israeli military on Sunday night informed the family of Muhammed Souf, an 18-year-old Palestinian terrorist who murdered three Israelis near the West Bank settlement of Ariel, that their home is slated for demolition.

Souf went on a stabbing and car-ramming spree at the Ariel Industrial Park and a nearby highway on November 15, killing Tamir Avihai, 50, Michael Ladygin, 36, and Motti Ashkenazi, 59, and seriously wounding three others.

Souf was shot dead by soldiers and armed civilians some 20 minutes after beginning his rampage.

In the days after the attack, Israeli troops measured Souf’s home — the first step before its potential demolition — in the village of Hares.

On Wednesday, his family was formally notified of the military’s intention to raze their home, the Israel Defense Forces said.

Israel regularly demolishes the homes of Palestinians accused of carrying out deadly terror attacks as a matter of policy. The efficacy of the policy has been hotly debated even within the Israeli security establishment, while human rights activists denounce the practice as unjust collective punishment.

Victims of a terror attack near the northern West Bank settlement of Ariel on November 15, 2022: Tamir Avihai (L) Michael Ladygin (C) and Motti Ashkenazi (R). (Courtesy)

Souf’s family can still appeal the decision to raze the home to Israel’s High Court of Justice. Such attempts rarely succeed, though in some cases the court limits the demolition order to only the parts of the house used by the terrorist.

Muhammed Souf (via Twitter)

Tensions have soared in the West Bank recently, as the IDF has pressed on with an anti-terror offensive to deal with a series of Palestinian attacks that killed 31 people in 2022.

The IDF’s operation has netted more than 2,500 arrests in near-nightly raids. It also left 171 Palestinians dead in 2022, and another 13 since the beginning of this year, many of them while carrying out attacks or during clashes with security forces, though some were uninvolved civilians.