Israel’s Army Radio said electronic surveillance of Syria and Iraq – where Islamic State insurgents have conquered swathes of territory – may have yielded intelligence on the organisation of the Paris attacks.
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Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon defended the demolitions on Monday and said they would continue, adding that “our forces acted professionally” during the operation in Qalandiya.
“It is appropriate that President Mahmoud Abbas, who condemned the attack in France, will condemn the cruel terrorism against innocents in Israel and fight the incitement fueling it”, the Prime Minister said.
On Saturday, Israeli troops razed the West Bank homes of four Palestinians accused of attacking Israelis, hours after an Israeli father and son were shot dead in an ambush near the flashpoint city of Hebron.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed condolences and vowed to hunt down the attackers. Like claims that Israel harvests organs of Palestinian children, or that Jews are staging the current wave of stabbings by Palestinians in Jerusalem, the propaganda is pushed on children and used to incite masses, Jacobson said.
“We are not to blame for the terrorism directed against us, just as the French are not to blame for the terrorism directed against them”.
Israeli soldiers forced residents to evacuate their homes in the camp before demolishing the top floor of an apartment belonging to Muhammad Abu Shahin, who allegedly killed an Israeli settler in June of this year.
After the troops arrived, hundreds of Palestinians gathered and many threw firebombs and rocks as the Israeli forces demolished the home, and troops fired rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the protesters, the military said. Israel says 51 of the Palestinians were involved in assaults and the rest died in clashes with security forces.
In an unrelated protest in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, 19 Palestinians were hospitalised after being shot in clashes with Israeli security forces, Palestinian medical sources said.
Last month, senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh called the recent spate of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds an Intifada (uprising) against the Tel Aviv regime. Three other people were wounded, the ministry said; one was shot in the stomach and reported in critical condition at a Ramallah hospital.
Hundreds of residents of the camp came on to the streets, throwing petrol bombs and stones, before the troops departed. Palestinians say the unrest stems from decades of military rule and dwindling hopes for an independent state.
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Israel has employed a policy of house demolitions in the West Bank and the Gaza strip since 1967.
