Day after two terror attacks, IDF prepares suspects' West Bank homes for demolition

Both suspects injured soldiers in two separate vehicular car ramming attacks in West Bank.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN, TOVAH LAZAROFF
Updated: NOVEMBER 29, 2015 03:21
IDF troops bomb the family home of a Palestinian suicide bomber in the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem (photo credit: REUTERS)
IDF troops bomb the family home of a Palestinian suicide bomber in the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem
(photo credit: REUTERS)
The IDF began to prepare over the weekend to demolish the homes of three Palestinian terrorists, two of whom wounded eight soldiers in the West Bank on Friday.
Palestinian assailant Amar Arafat Issa Za’akik, 17, ran down six soldiers with his car as they stood on the side of the road, near the entrance of the Palestinian village of Beit Umar, located off of Route 60 in between Gush Etzion and the West Bank city of Hebron.
Others responded and shot Za’akik dead while he was still in his car, a Palestinian flag lying on the front seat.
Two of the wounded soldiers were officers. One was treated at the scene, and the others were evacuated to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem by Magen David Adom with light-to-moderate wounds.
After the attack, soldiers from the Kfir infantry brigade’s Shimshon battalion, as well as Engineering Corps soldiers, mapped out Za’akik’s home. During the mapping process, a violent clash broke out, and Palestinian rioters hurled rocks, firebombs, and pipe bombs at security forces. Soldiers fired tear gas canisters to disperse the riot, and completed their mission.
There were no injuries reported in the clash.
The IDF also imposed a partial closure on the village, preventing its residents from reaching it through Route 60. They must now travel through the nearby village of Tzurif.
On Thursday, the security cabinet authorized the IDF to place closures on Palestinian villages at its discretion, in areas that are hotspots for attacks against Israeli citizens or soldiers.
On the other side of Jerusalem on Friday morning, Palestinian driver Fadi Muhammad Hasib, 21, rammed his vehicle into two IDF soldiers who were standing near the turnoff to the Kfar Adumim settlement.
Hasib was shot dead by other soldiers at the scene.
Both soldiers were listed as being in satisfactory-to-good condition; one in Shaare Tzedek Medical Center in Jerusalem and the second in Hadassah University Medical Center in Ein Kerem.
Supt. Rafi Cohen, head of the Ma’aleh Adumim police station, said Hasib’s brother, Shadi Hasib, carried out a terrorist attack last week and was also shot dead after the assault.
“He came here to finish [his brother’s] work,” Cohen said.
The political echelon ordered the IDF to begin preparations to destroy Hasib’s home as well. An IDF Engineering Corps unit working with an infantry battalion mapped out the home in Kfar Bir Nabala, near Ramallah.
Also on Friday, scores of Palestinians were injured throughout the West Bank in violent clashes with the IDF in multiple locations.
In Kalkilya, 150 Palestinians threw rocks and rolled burning tires at soldiers, who responded with stun grenades, rubber bullets, and low-caliber rifle rounds.
In the village of Kutzra, some 100 Palestinians hurled rocks, and the IDF responded with non-lethal crowd dispersal means. At al-Eida refugee camp area near Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem, some 200 Palestinians hurled rocks, and the IDF responded with crowd control means and rubber bullets.
In Beit Fajar, 100 Palestinians hurled firebombs and rocks, and rolled burning tires at soldiers, who responded with crowd control means, rubber bullets, and low-caliber rifle rounds.
Some 80 Palestinians rioted at the Halhoul Bridge, hurling firebombs and rolling burning tires at soldiers, who deployed riot dispersal means and fired low-caliber rifle rounds.