IDF issues demolition orders for homes of 2 Palestinian attackers
The families of men who killed Hadas Malka and Elhai Teharlev have 72 hours to issue appeals
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
The IDF issued demolition orders late Monday night for the homes of four Palestinians who killed Border Police officer Hadas Malka and soldier Elhai Teharlev in separate attacks in June and April.
Barring successful High Court of Justice appeals from any of the families within 72 hours, the army will be allowed to move forward with razing the structures, in the Deir Abu Mashal and Silwad villages outside Ramallah.
Malka, a 23-year-old border police officer, was stabbed to death while on patrol near the Damascus Gate to Jerusalem’s Old City. She fought her attacker for several seconds while attempting to draw her weapon, according to a Border Police statement. She was stabbed in the chest and transferred in critical condition to Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, where she underwent emergency surgery but succumbed to her wounds.
Malka had been among a group of troops responding to an attack seconds earlier by two other Palestinian assailants who targeted troops with knives and an automatic weapon at the adjacent Zedekiah’s Cave. All three attackers were killed.
Palestinian media reported that Israeli forces arrived at the homes of the three attackers, Bra’a Saleh Atta, 18, Adel Ankush, 18, and Usama Ahmed Atta, 19, in Deir Abu Mashal, shortly after the June 6 attack to prepare them for demolition.
Teharlev, 20, was killed in a car-ramming attack outside the West Bank settlement of Ofra on April 6. He and another soldier, who sustained light injuries, were guarding a bus stop off of the Route 60 highway.
The car struck the soldiers as they stood in an opening between the bollards protecting the bus stop and the concrete barrier protecting the rest of the sidewalk. The attacker accelerated at the soldiers from across the street to maximize the speed of impact, an army spokesman said.
The Palestinian driver of the car was captured by the IDF later that day and was identified as 21-year-old Malek Ahmad Mousa Hamed of Silwad.
Hamed had driven back and forth along the road looking for soldiers to target, military officials said. He had previously served four months in jail for attempting an attack at the settlement of Adam last year. His attack was the ninth in the past two years to be carried out by residents of Silwad.
Also late Tuesday night, security forces arrested a Hamas operative in the village Deir Samet outside of Hebron, and seized his vehicle. The car had been purchased using the funds transferred by the terror group to the family of another Palestinian terror responsible for a 2015 car-ramming attack, the IDF Spokesperson said.
Military officials said the operation was part of an ongoing effort to thwart the granting of funds to the families of terrorists.
In separate overnight operations across the West Bank, security forces detained 15 suspects suspected of involvement in terror-related activity, the army said.
During the arrests, forces seized a Carlo-style submachine gun, which was transferred along with the suspects for further investigation.
Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report.
