IDF demolishes home of terrorist who killed 2 in early October

The victims were Rabbi Nehemia Lavie, 41, of Jerusalem, and Aharon Benita from Beitar Illit.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Updated: JANUARY 10, 2016 06:40
The house demolished by the IDF (photo credit: ARAB MEDIA)
The house demolished by the IDF
(photo credit: ARAB MEDIA)
Three months after he murdered two Israelis in Jerusalem’s Old City in one of the first attacks of the ongoing Palestinian terrorism, the IDF demolished the home of Muhannad Shafik Muhammad Halabi in Surda, northeast of Ramallah.
Halabi stabbed and shot Rabbi Nehemia Lavi and Cpl. Aharon Benita, while also wounding a number of others, including Benita’s wife and baby daughter, at the Lion’s Gate in the Old City. The 19-year-old terrorist was shot dead at the scene by security forces.
IDF Engineering Corps units bulldozers demolished the Halabi family’s home in an operation overseen by the Binyamin Brigade and secured by the Givati Brigade’s Shaked and Netzah Yehuda Battalions, as well as the Border Police.
Halabi is portrayed as a heroic martyr in official Palestinian Authority media and among PA leaders. According to Palestinian Media Watch, on January 2, Fatah leader Jibril Rajoub said he and the Fatah movement “bless and encourage” Palestinian killers of Israelis, citing Halabi as an example.
“I say that whoever carried out individual acts of heroism, we in the Fatah movement bless and encourage them.
We consider them heroes and a crown on the head of every Palestinian. At this point, when there is weakening and frustration, there is a group of people, beginning with our brother, Muhannad Halabi, and ending with the last martyr.”