UPDATE - Israeli army detonates home of Palestinian killed in West Bank last year

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS, REVISES HEADLINE

By Qais Abu Samra and Ahmed Asmar, Betul Yilmaz

RAMALLAH, Palestine / ANKARA (AA) – The Israeli army on Wednesday morning detonated the home of a Palestinian man killed by the army during a confrontation last year in the occupied West Bank.

Army forces raided the town of Deir Ibzi, west of Ramallah city in the central West Bank, and blew up the home of slain Palestinian Mujahid Karaja, according to an Anadolu reporter.

Israeli forces vacated the two-story building of its residents, before detonating its upper story, he added.

Karaja was killed last year on March 22 during a confrontation with Israeli forces that also left one soldier killed and six others injured.

Separately, the Israeli army demolished several Palestinian homes in the Nur Shams and Jenin refugee camps in the northern occupied West Bank, witnesses said.

According to figures released by the Jenin Municipality, at least 600 homes were destroyed, and nearly 3,200 residential units became uninhabitable in a deadly Israeli raid in the area since January.

The Israeli authorities maintain a policy of demolishing the homes of Palestinians accused of attacking Israeli soldiers and illegal settlers, a practice widely condemned as a form of collective punishment prohibited under international law, as it often displaces entire families.

Tensions have been high in the West Bank, where at least 947 Palestinians have been killed and over 7,000 others injured since October 2023, according to Palestinian figures.

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land illegal and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.