{"id":25680,"date":"2018-12-15T16:22:43","date_gmt":"2018-12-15T16:22:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=25680"},"modified":"2018-12-15T16:22:43","modified_gmt":"2018-12-15T16:22:43","slug":"israeli-army-razes-home-of-prominent-palestinian-activist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=25680","title":{"rendered":"Israeli army razes home of prominent Palestinian activist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Correction 15\/12\/2018: <\/span>This article has been updated to reflect Latifa Abu Hmeid has six sons in prison, not five as previously stated. <\/p>\n

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The Israeli army has demolished a residential building owned by a prominent Palestinian activist, whose six sons have been imprisoned by Israel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The building, owned by Latifa Abu Hmeid, is located in the Amari refugee camp near the occupied West Bank<\/a> city of Ramallah.<\/p>\n

According to an Anadolu news agency reporter based in the area, Israeli soldiers raided the camp early Saturday, surrounding the building before bringing it down in a controlled demolition.<\/p>\n

Before razing the four-storey structure, the army evicted dozens of journalists and solidarity activists who had been inside the building in a bid to prevent its destruction.<\/p>\n

Israel accused one of Abu Hmeid’s sons of killing an Israeli soldier in May.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Protesters called the destruction a form of collective punishment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

56 Palestinians arrested<\/h2>\n

Neighbours said several hundred residents, including children, were ordered out of their homes and kept in a sports field in the cold night while the army operation continued.<\/p>\n

Following the demolition, confrontations broke out between local residents and Israeli troops, with the latter using tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammunition to disperse the crowds.<\/p>\n

At least 56 Palestinians have been injured in the protests<\/a> against the demolition.<\/p>\n

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<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Smoke rises as Israeli forces blow up the house of Palestinian family Abu Hmeid, in the Amari refugee camp in Ramallah [Mohamad Torokman\/Reuters]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Israel regularly demolishes the homes of Palestinians who carry out attacks against Israelis.<\/p>\n

Abu Hmeid also has a son who was shot dead by Israeli army troops in 1994.<\/p>\n

Voicing defiance, Abu Hmeid told Anadolu that the building’s destruction “will not break our will”, vowing to rebuild the structure “as soon as possible”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“All my sons have been either martyred or imprisoned, and that didn’t break me,” she said.<\/p>\n

“This is the third time they’ve destroyed my home,” Abu Hmeid added.<\/p>\n

Saeb Erekat, Chief Palestinian Negotiator, told Al Jazeera from the Doha Forum event that this demolition could lead to more violence in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“This is a war crime by the government of the occupying authority … [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu is fully responsible with his government with the war crimes being committed against the Palestinian people,” Erekat said.<\/p>\n

“Einstein was once asked what is madness and he responded, by repeating the same experiences and experiments with the same tools and expecting different results.<\/p>\n

“Netanyahu believes that by demolishing homes, killing Palestinians he will get peace and security. He is pushing Palestinians and Israelis further and deeper into the cycle of violence and counterviolence; that’s the truth.”<\/p>\n

Retaliation<\/h2>\n

In recent days, at least five Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces – and dozens more injured – across East Jerusalem<\/a> and the occupied West Bank. Three Israelis have also been killed including two soldiers<\/a> in a drive-by shooting on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> has faced pressure from right-wing rivals and Jewish settlers for a strong response following the shooting.<\/p>\n

It was the third deadly attack by Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank in two months and set off demonstrations by settler groups upon whose support Netanyahu’s government depends.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the Palestinian Prisoners Association said the Israeli army had detained some 100 Palestinians throughout the West Bank and East Jerusalem since dawn Thursday.<\/p>\n

Natasha Ghoneim reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank said that the tense atmosphere continues to persist throughout Ramallah; schools and universities are closed for the day.<\/p>\n

“The demolition, the raids, the administrative detention of Hamas members, the increased military presence at checkpoints and roads coming into Ramallah – these are all measures that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to take in retaliation over these three deaths,” Ghoneim said.<\/p>\n

“On the Palestinian side, of course, there’s a lot of anger. [Palestinian] President Mahmoud Abbas is being diplomatic, saying he condemns violence but also saying that there’s been an atmosphere created here, a lack of hope over the peace process, settlers calling for his assassination, that have made it ripe for these kinds of conditions.”<\/p>\n

Abbas is headed to Jordan<\/a> tomorrow to meet King Abdullah II to discuss the situation and how to restore calm. On Thursday, Egypt<\/a> also sent its delegation of security services, Ghoneim added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n SOURCE:
\n Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Correction 15\/12\/2018: This article has been updated to reflect Latifa Abu Hmeid has six sons in prison, not five as previously stated. The Israeli army has demolished a residential building owned by a prominent Palestinian activist, whose six sons have been imprisoned by Israel. The building, owned by Latifa Abu Hmeid, is located in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":25681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}