Israel's military demolished on Friday the homes of the two assailants who killed two Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron last week, Reuters reported — a new step in an operation Awaaz Punjab has been reporting day by day, in which thousands of Palestinians have been forced from their homes.

Source: Reuters

Both gunmen were killed in the October 23 checkpoint attack. After it, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military operation in areas near the checkpoint, triggering protests by Palestinian residents, Reuters said.

In a statement announcing the demolitions, Israel's military said it would “continue to operate proactively and offensively” to thwart attacks in the West Bank and “protect residents in the area”.

The homes demolished on Friday had been occupied by the wives and children of the gunmen before the military forced Palestinians to leave the area over the past week, local residents told Reuters. The military has also demolished other homes as well as shops, roads and factories in Hebron since the attack, according to local officials, though the exact scale of the demolitions is unclear.

A city largely sealed off

The military has closed most entrances to Hebron, severely curtailing freedom of movement for Palestinians, including people in need of medical attention, Reuters reported. Al Jazeera has reported that bulldozers destroyed buildings near the attack area and that soldiers went house to house in the al-Jalada and Ein Deir Baha neighbourhoods, where the attackers lived.

Source: Al Jazeera via Haiti Gazette

UN human rights chief Volker Türk said this week that the displacement of residents raised “grave concerns of unnecessary and disproportionate use of force” and that “threats to empty and erase entire neighbourhoods also raise serious concerns of ethnic cleansing” — a warning Awaaz Punjab reported earlier this week as displacement passed 3,000.

Palestinian officials have accused Netanyahu of using the operation to drum up support ahead of a general election in Israel on Tuesday. Israel's government says the operation is a response to the attack on its soldiers.

In Kafr Malik, near Ramallah, Reuters witnesses on Friday documented Israeli settlers shoving Palestinians and preventing farmers from harvesting their olives while the Israeli military was present. Attacks have surged during the Palestinian olive harvest, which runs from late September to November; the Israeli rights group Yesh Din reported at least 135 physical attacks on the harvest as of October 23.