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More than 1,000 Israeli forces enter Shuafat refugee camp to demolish Palestinian attacker’s home with explosives

Yesterday in a major operation more than 1,000 Israeli forces crowded the streets of Shuafat Refugee camp in East Jerusalem to demolish by explosion the family home of a Palestinian who killed three and wounded 14 in a car ramming attack in November 2014, causing clashes between residents and Israeli police.

While the demolition was in progress Israeli forces closed all entrances into the camp and roads inside of the congested neighborhood. Ambulances were prevented from driving into the area to retrieve patients wounded with rubber bullets in unrest until the Israeli army left the camp, Red Crescent spokesperson Erab al -Fuqaha told Mondoweiss


During the explosion, debris damaged the homes of numerous neighboring Palestinians, cracking foundations and walls and shattering windows.

Scores of Shuafat residents logged the incursion over social media. A Facebook page for the camp posted photos showing dark blue clad police in riot gear walking through the street. Video footage from the Israeli military and camp residents show police using maps to guide them to the al-Akri family home, drilling holes in the wall to implant explosives, and detonating incendiary devices which caused a mushroom cloud of smoke.

Last year Ibrahim al-Akri drove his vehicle into pedestrians waiting at a bus shelter and killed one Druze police officer, one Israeli and one Palestinian from the West Bank. After the collision al-Akri leapt from his car and assaulted more than a dozen with a crow bar before Israeli police who had rushed to the scene shot and killed him.

Israeli authorities attempted to demolish al-Akri’s home shortly after the attack, yet they were prevented from doing so after clashes erupted throughout Shuafat camp. The house that was razed yesterday was home to his widow and five children.

Shuafat refugee camp is the only Palestinian refugee camp located on the Israeli side of the separation wall. It was founded in 1965 to house Palestinian refugees living in what is now the Jewish Quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem. Today the population is more than 10,000 and the entire camp is surrounded by Israel’s separation wall, accessible through a military checkpoint.

Israeli forces demolish by explosion the family home of a Palestinian who killed three in a car-ramming last year. (Photo: Facebook)
Israeli forces demolish by explosion the family home of a Palestinian who killed three in a car-ramming last year. (Photo: Facebook)
Israeli forces enter Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem to demolish the family home of Ibrahim al-Akri, a Palestinian who killed three last fall in a hit-and-run attack. (Photo: Facebook)
Israeli forces enter Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem to demolish the family home of Ibrahim al-Akri, a Palestinian who killed three last fall in a hit-and-run attack. (Photo: Facebook)

[Editor: The Washington Post published the Israeli army video of the operation without any explanation of the policy of collective punishment, and without the names of the family. It includes a shot of a crowded Israeli war-room watching the operation.]

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“During the explosion, debris damaged the homes of numerous neighboring Palestinians, cracking foundations and walls and shattering windows.”

In botching this house demolition, they demonstrate they’ve lost the ability they once had to drop large buildings straight down onto their foundations. Pity, that.

‘Destroyed the home of a widow and five children’….. If that doesn’t speak to you of the cruelty of Netanyahu….

So it takes 1000 – yes one thousand – heavily armed thugs to enter one refugee camp? And this is considered a ‘military operation’ watched with awe by the IDF top brass?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: It makes me snigger when I hear hasbarists claim that Israel could go to war with Iran. This gang of clowns up against the Republican Guard? As if!

Will the U.S. take a page from Israel’s book and destroy the home of the grandmother who is caring for the orphaned baby of the San Bernadino attackers?

Shouldn’t the U.S. at least insist that Israel destroy the home of the family of Israel Keller, a U.S. citizen who is a suspect in the murder-by-arson of the Dawabsheh family? http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2015/12/04/walla-u-s-citizen-member-of-jewish-terror-ring/

Collective punishment is a war crime. Holding families liable for the actions of a single member is a perversion of any form of justice. The idf is scum and so is the state (and it’s leaders) that performs these reprehensible actions.

I know there are many decent Israelis who fight against these actions. Sadly they are in a minority