Israel yesterday destroyed the home of a Palestinian who last month ran over and killed two people at a Jerusalem tram stop, a day after two militants killed four rabbis and a policeman at a synagogue in the city.
The home of Abdel-Rahman Shaloudi, 21, was blown up before dawn, police and the military said. Shaloudi, a resident of East Jerusalem, had been shot dead by police on October 22 as he tried to flee after mowing down commuters at a light railway stop.
The man was shot dead by police as he tried to flee after mowing down commuters at a light railway stop in Jerusalem
A three-month-old baby, a US citizen, and a 22-year-old tourist from Ecuador were killed when he rammed the tram stop with his car. Seven other people were injured.
Shaloudi’s home in the Silwan neighbourhood, adjacent to the old walled city, has been the scene of confrontations since the incident. His family has said it was a traffic accident.
Israel’s army has blown up or demolished militants’ homes for decades but stopped in 2005, saying it was counterproductive in their effort to discourage attacks. Court-sanctioned demolitions resumed earlier this year.
Tuesday’s attack at a Jerusalem synagogue, where four rabbis and a policeman were killed, was the worst in the city since 2008 when a Palestinian gunman killed eight people at a religious school. Tension has deepened in Silwan and other areas of Arab East Jerusalem in recent months, with almost nightly clashes between Palestinians throwing rocks and setting off firecrackers and armed Israeli police firing stun grenades and tear gas.
The unrest has grown since the July-August war in Gaza and the recent movement of dozens of Jewish settlers into Silwan. A push by Orthodox Jews to be allowed to pray at an Old City site that is holy to both Muslims and Jews, in defiance of a decades-long ban agreed by Israel, has also fuelled anger.
Palestinians seek Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza – lands captured and occupied by Israel after the 1967 war – for their future state.
Citing historical and Biblical roots, Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its capital and has annexed it in a move that is not accepted internationally.