Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday called for demolishing the home of Qassem Al-Mughrabi who struck with his car a group of Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem Monday night. 19 Israelis were wounded and Al-Mughrabi was shot dead by one of the soldiers.
Barak, during a meeting with commanders of security apparatuses, said that the measure should be adopted immediately as a deterrent. The Israeli minister had issued orders for the demolition of homes of two Palestinians who used tractors tofor launching attacks against Israelis in the same area a couple of months ago but both decisions were still being discussed in courts.
Barak said that the judiciary should act quickly to allow the security apparatuses to demolish the homes of "saboteurs" immediately after they embark on their attacks.
On its part, Hamas described the incident in Jerusalem as "natural response to Zionist aggression on the Palestinian people". Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, told PIC that the Jerusalem attack was also a response to the Israeli "colonialist crimes and judaization of Jerusalem." He stressed that the operation also reflected the Palestinian people's determination to resist occupation using whatever means available to them.
The armed wing of Islamic Jihad Movement, the Quds Brigades, said that the attack was in reprisal to the incessant Israeli occupation's crimes against the Palestinians. It called on the Palestinian resistance factions to retaliate to any Israeli violation of the "fragile" calm whether in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank.
Meanwhile, Israeli occupation forces at dawn Tuesday stormed a number of Palestinian cities and villages in the West Bank. In the village of Assira Qabalia south of Nablus, the troops detained the brother of the Palestinian minor who was killed by Israeli soldiers guarding Yitzhar settlement last Saturday.
