CPTnet
May 29, 2003
HEBRON: Israeli military blows up two homes
By Chris Brown
CPT learned that the explosions heard about 5 a.m. on May 26 in Hebron were
the demolition of an apartment block and a house. They were where the
families of two suicide bombers, who perpetrated the attacks against Israeli
buses in Jerusalem on May 18 lived.
Israeli Army troops surrounded the area around the apartment block, located
near Hebron University, and forced the building's inhabitants (eighty people
in
all) as well as inhabitants in surrounding buildings to evacuate. Soldiers
then started putting dynamite in various parts of the apartment. According
to the owner of the building, fourteen other apartments located in the same
building sustained severe damage due to the explosion. At least thirteen
other
apartments in two adjacent buildings also sustained damages. The owner
described the demolition as horrible and inhumane and said he had, as soon
as the identity of the suicide bomber was revealed, registered an appeal
asking that the apartment not be demolished.
That same morning, soldiers arrived and forced family members to evacuate
the home of another suicide bomber. The family was not allowed to take any
of their belongings or belongings they had stored in six commercial stores
located on the ground floor of their home. The explosion caused severe
damages to adjacent buildings and houses.
None of the family members of the two men had any knowledge beforehand of
the attacks.
A field worker for the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem told CPT: "This
is the first time that such grave measures have been imposed on those other
than close relatives of suicide bombers." Under the Fourth Geneva
Convention, this collective punishment is a war crime.
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