As one Palestinian family’s history shows, home demolitions won’t stop attacks

A man raises a Palestinian flag on the ruins of a house belonging to a Palestinian charged with killing an Israeli soldier in the West Bank refugee camp of al-Am’ari

Avi Issacharoff writes in Times of Israel, “The Abu Hamid family, whose home was demolished by the Israeli military early Saturday, has a long history of involvement in attacks on Israeli security forces. In 1991, the Israel Defense Forces destroyed the family’s home in the al-Amari refugee camp near Ramallah over the involvement of one of the brothers — Nasser, a Fatah member — in terrorism. That house was later rebuilt… before being demolished again Saturday. In 1994 another brother, Abdul Munim Abu Hamid, along with two Hamas members, killed Shin Bet agent Noam Cohen. Abdul himself was killed a few months later.”

“Nasser Abu Hamid, upon his release from prison, became a founder of Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades at the start of the Second Intifada and in April 2002 was arrested by the IDF during Operation Defensive Shield, not far from the family home. Other brothers would also spend time in Israeli prisons over the years, among them Islam Yousef Abu Hamid.  During an operation of the elite Duvdevan unit in al-Amari in May, he is said to have thrown a marble slab from a roof at Israeli forces, killing Staff Sgt. Ronen Lubarsky — and leading to the razing of the family home early Saturday.”…

Smoke rises from a house belonging to a Palestinian charged with killing an Israeli soldier in the West Bank refugee camp of al-Amari, after the Israeli military blew it up

“In early 2005, a committee appointed by then-IDF chief of staff Moshe Ya’alon and headed by Gen. Udi Shani recommended ending the razing of homes on the grounds that they were not proven to be a deterrent, and declared that the damage outweighed any benefit…While this fact may be unfortunate and while the Israeli public and politicians may be thirsty for justice, attacks such as that perpetrated by Abu Hamid — and those in the West Bank this week — will continue regardless of Israeli retribution, so long as the status quo revered by the Israeli government persists.” (more…)