Hoping to deter more suicide bombings, Israel has resumed the demolition of Hamas terrorists’ West Bank homes.
Three homes were destroyed Wednesday after the High Court of Justice rejected seven appeals against the demolition policy.
At the Al-Fawwar refugee camp near Hebron, Israeli soldiers evacuated residents to a nearby hilltop before blowing up the home of Ibrahim Sarahneh, the suicide bomber who killed one person in a Feb. 25 suicide attack in Ashkelon.
Angry residents, protesting what they called collective punishment, threw stones at the troops, who responded with rubber bullets. No one was injured.
Troops were also scheduled to demolish another home in Al-Fawwar that belonged to the family of Majdi Abu Wardeh, who killed 25 people along with himself in a bus bombing in Jerusalem the same day as the Ashkelon attack.
But the demolition was delayed, after the army decided it would damage surrounding homes.
In Beit Hanina north of Jerusalem, Bulldozers flattened the home of Mohiadin Sharif.
Sharif, who is still at large, is suspected by Israel of recruiting the suicide bomber and providing the explosives used in August’s bombing of the No. 26 bus in Jerusalem’s northern neighborhood of Ramat Eshkol.
The bomber claimed four victims in that attack and injured more than 100.
The third home destroyed belonged to Abdel-Majid Dodin in El Bruj near Hebron. He was sentenced by a Palestinian court to serve 12 years in jail for involvement in the No. 26 bus bombing.
The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem appealed in a letter to Prime Minister Simon Peres “to reconsider the use of house demolitions as a punitive measure.”
Last week, Israeli troops destroyed the home of Yehiya Ayash, believed to be the mastermind behind a series of suicide bombings in Israel. He was killed January in the Gaza Strip by a body-trapped cellular phone.
A week earlier, Israeli troops blew up the home of Rayid Sharnobi in the village of Burka, located north of Nablus.
Sharnobi carried out the March 3 suicide bombing of the No. 18 bus in Jerusalem, killing 19 people as well as himself.
Meanwhile, in the ongoing crackdown on Hamas militants, Israeli troops on Wednesday arrested 35 Palestinians.
Palestinian police say they have arrested some 900 suspected militants since the wave of recent Hamas suicide bombings brought the peace process to a virtual halt.
On Wednesday, the Palestinian police chief in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Maj. Gen. Nasser Yussef, warned that there might be more suicide attacks.
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