Israeli occupation forces Thursday took measurements of two houses owned by the al-Shantir family in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, in preparation for their demolition, local sources said. WAFA correspondent said that a large unit of Israeli occupation army stormed the area of Khallet Manna, south of the city, and took measurements of the homes of Palestinian detainees Mohammad al-Shantir and Saqr al-Shantir, in an apparent prelude to demolish it as a collective punishment for an Israeli settler’s killing. The occupation authorities accuse the two detained members of the al-Shantir family of carrying out a shooting attack on a settler vehicle last Monday which killed one female settler and critically injured another. In the meantime, confrontations erupted between dozens of Palestinian youths and the occupation forces. No casualties were reported, however. Israel demolishes the homes of any Palestinians – as means of deterrence – accused of being involved in attacks against Israelis, a policy that Israel does not use against Israeli settlers who were involved in fatal attacks against Palestinians. This policy was widely slammed by human rights organizations as ‘collective punishment’ and ‘a war crime and a crime against humanity’. B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, says: ‘The people who bear the brunt of the [punitive] demolitions are relatives – including women, the elderly, and children – whom Israel does not suspect of involvement in any offense.’ ‘In the vast majority of cases, the person whose actions prompted the demolition was not even living in the house at the time of the demolition,’ adds the group. ‘The official objective of the house demolition policy is deterrence … yet the deterrent effect of house demolitions has never been proven.’ It said that, ‘Since this constitutes deliberate harm to innocents, it is clear that even if house demolition had the desired deterrent effect, it would, nevertheless, remain unlawful.’
Source: En – Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA