Hebron, (NNN-WAFA) : Large Israeli army forces raided the town of Yatta at dawn Thursday and demolished two houses where two Palestinian youths who carried out a shooting in Tel Aviv lived with their families.
Footage released by Israeli media showed Israeli soldiers surrounding the house accompanied by bulldozers and preparing for the demolitions.
Local sources in the town said the army forced the owners of the two houses and neighbors in houses nearby to evict their property.
According to witnesses from the town, clashes erupted with Israeli soldiers as Palestinian youths threw rocks. Soldiers responded by shooting rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas bombs. Several Palestinians reported suffering tear gas inhalation during the clashes.
The demolition of the houses where the families of cousins Mohammed and Khaled Makhamra, came after an Israeli Supreme Court Judge rejected an appeal against the demolition of Khaled’s home in Yatta and Mohammed’s home in the Hebron area.
The Court renewed support of the demolition of Palestinians’ homes under the pretext it aids in preventing “acts of terror”.
A video released after the attack in Tel Aviv, showed two young men dressed in black attacking a commercial center. The Makhamra cousins killed four Israelis and injured 16 others in the shooting.
Following the incident, Yatta was besieged and ten Palestinians were detained under suspicion of involvement in manufacturing and dealing weapons in addition to transporting Mohammad and Khaled into Israel.
Israel claims demolition of homes is a dissuasive policy, while critics say collective punishment impacts families who never wronged or were involved in any illegal acts.