IDF razes home of Palestinian suspected in August terror slaying of man, son
Troops level Aqraba home of Osama Bani Fadl, held for gunning down Ashdod residents at Huwara carwash in West Bank; 14 Palestinians reported injured in clashes with troops
Israel Defense Forces soldiers demolished the West Bank home of a Palestinian man suspected of killing an Israeli father and son in a terror attack in August, the military said Tuesday.
Troops went into the town of Aqraba overnight and destroyed the home of Osama Bani Fadl, who was arrested last month over the shooting deaths of Shay Silas Nigreker, 60, and his 28-year-old son Aviad Nir in August. The Ashdod residents were killed at a carwash in the town of Huwara, south of Nablus, in August.
According to the Palestinian Wafa news agency, soldiers clashed with protesters at the scene, firing stun grenades and gas bombs, injuring 14. The IDF statement did not mention the clashes.
Bani Fadl was arrested in a raid on Jenin in November after he was discovered in an attic space above a door hidden behind a double wall, footage released by the IDF showed.
He was found hiding with an M-16 rifle, magazines, and a Hamas flag.
Israeli authorities often take punitive action such as home demolitions even before a conviction in cases of terrorist attacks. Jerusalem defends the practice of razing the family home 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, a number of Israeli defense officials have questioned the efficacy of the practice, and human rights activists have denounced it as unfair collective punishment.
לוחמי צה״ל במילואים, הנדסה, שב״כ ומג״ב הרסו הלילה בכפר עקרבה שבחטיבת שומרון את דירתו של המחבל אוסמה בני פדל שביצע את הפיגוע בחווארה בתאריך 19.8.23 בו נרצחו שי ואביעד ניגרקר ז״ל.
כמו כן, הכוחות עצרו עשרה מבוקשים ברחבי יהודה ושומרון, ביניהם ארבעה המזוהים עם ארגון הטרור חמאס>> pic.twitter.com/FLLUh3SEpO
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) December 19, 2023
Also overnight, security forces arrested 10 suspects, among them four Hamas terror group members, in raids across the West Bank, the military’s statement read.
In the village of Beit Ummar, troops confiscated an M-16, 40 illegal vehicles in Surif, and NIS 100,000 of funds for terrorism in Qarawat Bani Hassan, the IDF said.
There were no injuries to Israeli troops.
The military has carried out dozens of raids in terror hotspots in the northern West Bank in recent months. Israel says that the Palestinian Authority has lost control of areas of the northern West Bank, allowing terror groups to entrench themselves and launch attacks on Israelis on both sides of the Green Line.
Since the October 7 onslaught by Hamas against Israel, troops have arrested over 2,400 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,200 affiliated with Hamas.
According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, some 280 West Bank Palestinians have been killed by Israelis or Israeli forces in that time.
Based on military estimates, the vast majority of the 280 Palestinians killed since October 7 were shot dead during clashes amid arrest raids, and many of them, according to data seen by The Times of Israel, were armed with either a firearm or an explosive device.
The IDF is aware of at least three cases of uninvolved Palestinians being killed by troops in recent weeks, and a handful of cases of settlers killing Palestinians, which are still under investigation.
