Israel to demolish homes of Ofra and Givat Assaf terrorists

The IDF on Sunday issued a demolition order for the home belonging to the family of Asam Barghouti following the deadly Ofra and Givat Assaf drive-by shooting attacks in December.The family home in the West Bank village of Kobar, south of Nablus, was mapped by Israeli security forces in late December ahead of its demolition.The IDF said that the family has been given until January 23 to challenge the military’s decision to demolish the home.Asam Barghouti was arrested on January 8 in a joint operation by the IDF, Israel Police and Shin Bet in the West Bank village of Abu Shukheidim, north of Ramallah, at the home of one of his associates following a massive manhunt throughout the West Bank.Barghouti and his brother Saleh are suspected of carrying out a shooting attack at the Ofra Junction on December 9, which wounded seven Israelis. A newborn child, who was delivered prematurely as a result of the attack, died three days later.Barghouti is suspected of carrying out another shooting attack outside the outpost of Givat Assaf, just south of Ofra, days later in which two IDF soldiers, St.-Sgt. Yuval Mor Yosef and Sgt. Yosef Cohen were killed. Two more Israelis were wounded, a female resident of Beit El and another IDF soldier, Netanel Felber, who remains in critical condition.Saleh was shot dead by IDF troops during an arrest attempt on December 12, a day before the Givat Assaf shooting.Barghouti comes from a Hamas-affiliated family and has spent 11 years in Israeli prisons for security-related crimes, including plans to abduct soldiers.Hamas’s military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, took credit for the Ofra attack shortly after Saleh Barghouti was killed by IDF troops, praising it and saying that it proved that the resistance was alive in the West Bank. "Hamas announces with great pride the death of its martyr Saleh Omar Barghouti, the perpetrator of the heroic Ofra operation," the group wrote on its Telegram account.The group also released a statement praising the Givat Assaf shooting and warned of more attacks to come."The enemy must not dream of security and stability... The West Bank will burn the occupiers and harass them in ways that the enemy does not expect,” read the statement, adding that "all attempts to destroy our resistance and take our weapons in the West Bank will fail.”