High Court rejects appeal against demolition of 13-year-old Palestinian attacker’s home

The High Court of Justice rejects an appeal against demolishing the home of a 13-year-old Palestinian who stabbed a Border Police officer in Jerusalem earlier this year.

The justices ruled 2-1 in favor of allowing the demolition of Muhammad Bassel Fathi Zalbani’s home in the Shuafat refugee camp in Jerusalem.

In February, Zalbani stabbed 22-year-old Staff Sgt. Asil Sawaed in the head and neck on a bus at a checkpoint near East Jerusalem’s Shuafat Refugee Camp. The teenager has since been charged with aggravated murder and is expected to be placed in a juvenile detention center, due to his age.

A civilian security officer who had boarded the bus with Sawaed opened fire at the teen attacker, but one of the shots hit the Border Police officer in the thigh. Zalbani was not hit by the gunfire, and was detained. Sawaed died en route to the hospital from wounds caused by the stabbing and gunfire.