In overnight raids, IDF measures car-rammer’s home for demolition

Israeli troops on Friday raided the West Bank hometown of a Palestinian assailant who plowed his car into two IDF soldiers a day earlier, killing one of them, the army said.

In Silwad, northeast of Ramallah, the military also impounded cars it said were stolen and seized some NIS 40,000 ($11,000) of “terror funds,” the IDF said.

On Thursday morning, a Silwad resident, 21-year-old Malek Ahmad Mousa Hamed, drove his car into the soldiers at the nearby Ofra junction. Sgt. Elhai Teharlev, 20, was killed and another soldier was lightly wounded.

In the early morning raid on Friday, Hamed’s brother was arrested and the family’s home was measured — the first step in preparing it for demolition.

On Thursday night, the army imposed a so-called “breathing closure” on the Palestinian town, allowing residents in freely, but only letting them out after a security check, the army said.

Also on Thursday, the work permits for the entire family were frozen. On Friday, those permits were taken away, the IDF said.

In an unrelated operation, the IDF arrested three other Palestinians in the West Bank city of Nablus.

According to the military, one of them was a member of the Hamas terrorist group, while the other two took part in “popular terrorism,” a catch-all term typically referring to rock-throwing and violent protests against security forces.

The army’s Silwad operation was carried out in collaboration with the Shin Bet security service, Israel Police, and Border Police.

“This is part of the ‘concept of expanded prevention’ for taking action against all the circles of support for the terrorist,” the army said in a statement.

The car used by Hamed in his ramming attack, a silver Audi, belonged to his father, according to Israel Radio.

Hamed drove into the two soldiers as they guarded a bus stop near the Ofra settlement, north-east of Ramallah. He struck them as they stood in a gap between the metal bollards protecting the bus stop and a concrete barrier protecting the rest of the sidewalk.

Teharlev was buried in Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl Military Cemetery on Thursday, in a funeral attended by hundreds of Israelis, including several ministers and Knesset members.

“You had a smile that melted hearts. We refuse to believe; we are saying goodbye but not letting you go,” his father Rabbi Ohad Teharlev said at the funeral.

“It is difficult to comprehend this bitter news, incompressible that you are no longer with us,” said his mother Avital. “Your eyes full of light, your presence made the world a brighter place, happy and good. I thank God that I had the privilege and joy of being your mother.”

Though a marked drop has been recorded by security officials in recent months, 41 Israelis, two Americans, a Palestinian and an Eritrean national have been killed in the spate of stabbing, car-ramming and shooting attacks that began a year and a half ago.

According to AFP figures, some 250 Palestinians, a Jordanian and a Sudanese migrant have also been killed, most of them in the course of carrying out attacks, Israel says, and many of the others in clashes with troops in the West Bank and at the Gaza border, as well as in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip in response to rocket attacks.

The spate of Palestinian attacks that began in October 2015 was dubbed the “lone wolf” intifada, as many of the attacks were carried out by individuals who were not connected to any terror group.