Israel begins demolishing homes over attacks

Story by Al-Jazeera
Reported by Stefanie Dakker, Dalia Hatuqa, and Imtiaz Tyab

Israel has demolished the East Jerusalem home of a Palestinian who carried out a deadly October attack, just hours after Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister, warned of strict security measures in response to Tuesday's synagogue killings in Jerusalem.

The house demolished on Wednesday in the Silwan neighbourhood near the Old City belonged to Abdel Rahman al-Shaludi, who last month killed two people among a crowd standing on a light rail platform in Jerusalem.

Four families who lived in the building - including that of al-Shaludi - had to evacuate (left), Al Jazeera's Dalia Hatuqa reported from East Jerusalem, adding that the entire neighborhood was closed off by Israeli security forces.

Al Jazeera's Stefanie Dekker, reporting from outside the demolished house, said people in the area considered the Israeli action as a form of collective punishment - "a wider way to punish - even the extended family".

Punitive demolition was a tactic frequently employed by Israeli security forces before defence chiefs decided to suspend it in 2005 after concluding that it was not an effective deterrent.

Since then the policy has been used occasionally - three times in East Jerusalem in 2009, and three times over the summer in response to the killing of an Israeli policeman and the murder of three Israeli teenagers.

Rubble of family home

Sitting amid the rubble of the family home in Silwan on Wednesday, al-Shaludi's grandmother said: "No one should feel sorry for us, for our demolished home."

The October attack killed a three-month-old baby girl and a 22-year-old woman as he drove his car into the train stop before he was shot by Israeli police.

The home demolitions began even as Jewish worshippers returned to the scene of Tuesday's attack, the Kehilat Bnai Torah synagogue in the West Jerusalem neighbourhood of Har Nof.

One of them, Gavriel Cohen, said the attack showed "that our future in this world is dependent on God".

All four of the congregants killed in the attack had immigrated to Israel from English-speaking countries - three from the US and one from Britain.

Cousins Ghassan Abu Jamal and Oday Abu Jamal, wielding meat cleavers, knives and handguns, stormed the synagogue in the neighbourhood of Har Nof, killing the four worshippers and a policeman.

The Palestinians were killed by Israeli police.

Netanyahu's warning

Netanyahu said late on Tuesday that he had ordered security forces to hit back hard at Palestinians involved in violence against Israelis, and to resume the policy of home demolitions.

Al Jazeera's Imtiaz Tyab, reporting from West Jerusalem, said confrontation had so far prevented the Israelis from demolishing the homes of the Abu Jamal cousins.

"But it is pretty safe to say that it will eventually [be carried out]. All this lends to general unease in the East of Jerusalem which has really been brewing for some time now," he said.

In recent weeks, a total of 11 people have died at the hands of Palestinian attackers using guns, knives and vehicles - most in Jerusalem but also in Tel Aviv and the West Bank.

Jerusalem has seen its worst sustained bout of violence since a Palestinian uprising a decade ago.

The synagogue attack was the deadliest in Jerusalem since 2008 and came amid weeks of violence linked to the city's Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, sacred to both Muslims and Jews.

For Muslims, the hilltop compound in Jerusalem's Old City is the Noble Sanctuary, home to al-Aqsa Mosque and the gold-topped Dome of the Rock.

The location is also revered by Jews.

Palestinians have been angered over stepped-up Israeli visits to the site, which many of them see as a provocation.