Israel destroyed the homes of Palestinian militants and detained their relatives for possible exile yesterday, a new tactic meant to deter suicide bombers but decried by Palestinians as a crime against humanity.
"I see this as a war crime. I see this as a crime against humanity," Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat said of the tactic, which Israel used against suspected activists in the first Palestinian uprising of 1987 to 1993.
PHOTO: AP
Reeling from Palestinian attacks this week that killed 11 people in Israel and near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, the Israeli army destroyed the family homes of two wanted men, Nasser al-Din Assidi of Hamas and Ali Ahmad al-Ajouri of Fatah.
Witnesses said 22 people were made homeless in the overnight operation near the West Bank city of Nablus and that soldiers took 22 male relatives of the two militants into custody. Israel Radio said 21 men were detained.
In a sign of popular support in Israel for tougher measures to stop suicide bombings, the country's leading dove, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, came out in favor of using exile as a weapon.
Asked if he supported such a measure, he told Israel Radio: "As far as I know, it has undergone legal scrutiny and if legally possible, yes."
Israeli security sources said Assidi was responsible for Tuesday's bus ambush near the Jewish settlement of Emmanuel in the West Bank in which eight people were killed and for an attack at the same spot in December in which 11 died.
The sources said Ajouri was behind Wednesday's attack in Tel Aviv's foreign worker neighborhood in which two suicide bombers killed three people.
The back-to-back incidents ended a month of relative calm after Israel's reoccupation of seven Palestinian cities, underscoring the army's inability to stop such attacks completely.
The Palestinian Authority condemned the suicide bombings, but militants call them a response to Israeli aggression.
Daniel Taub, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Israel was searching for ways to deny suicide bombers a "supportive environment."
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