HEBRON: Dozens of civilians suffocated by tear gas tonight during confrontations with Israeli forces in the town of Bani Na’im and the village of Beit ‘Amra, in the Hebron Governorate, following a military incursion in preparation for the punitive demolition of the homes of two alleged attackers.

WAFA correspondent said that forces stormed the town of Bani Na’im, east of Hebron, and raided the homes of two Palestinians whom Israel accuses of allegedly carrying out a car-ramming attack inside the 1948 occupied land earlier today.

The two were identified as Ahmad Mohammed Ziyadat, 25, and Mahmoud Ali Ziyadat, 44. They were both detained inside Israel following the alleged attack.

Israeli forces raided the homes of the two men, where they proceeded to search them, destroy and tamper with their contents, as well as assault their families and subject them to field interrogations, before taking measurements of the two houses, in preparation for their punitive demolition.

Confrontations broke out in the town of
Bani Na’im in the aftermath of the Israeli raid, during which forces fired live ammunition, rubber-coated metal bullets, stun grenades and tear gas canisters at the residents. Dozens were treated at the scene from tear gas suffocation.

Confrontations also broke out following a military incursion into the village of Beit ‘Amra to the south, which resulted in dozens of suffocation cases.

In the meantime, Israeli colonists, dressed as army forces, attacked a school in Khalet al-Maiyya village, also in the south. The school was handed a demolition notice by the occupation last week during a military raid, during which forces attacked the school, smashing its windows.

Furthermore, colonists from the colonies of Mitzpe Yair and Susya, built illegally on lands appropriated from the town of Yatta, released their livestock into agricultural land belonging to the Jabarin family in the Shaab al-Batm hamlet in Masafer Yatta, destroying the crops.

Israel resorts to punitively demolish the family homes of any Palestini
an – as a 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.

Punitive demolitions are a form of collective punishment and as such are illegal under international law as they target the families of a perpetrator or alleged perpetrator, stressed the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Source: Palestine news and Information Agency – WAFA