Israel’s embassy to the United States has issued a rare public rebuke to a State Department office that deals with Palestinian affairs, after it criticised Israel’s demolition of a Palestinian home in Jerusalem, AFP reports.
“The government of Israel has demolished the home of a Palestinian family in response to the actions of their 13-year-old child,” the US Office of Palestinian Affairs posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The Israeli embassy shot back in response, “Context is helpful: the ‘13-year-old’ is a terrorist who murdered an Israeli citizen by stabbing him to death.”
Neither side named the teen, but Israeli media identified him as Muhammad Zalbani, who it said had stabbed to death an Israeli border policeman as he was inspecting a bus in East Jerusalem in February.
The Times of Israel said the home demolition took place on Wednesday in the Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem, under the protection of a large police force.
