TEL AVIV, Sept 18: The Israeli supreme court has upheld an army order to destroy the homes of two Palestinian suicide bombers, throwing out appeals by the bombers’ families, court sources said Wednesday.
The families of Nabil Halbia and Osama Bahar lost their appeal in a court decision on Tuesday, when they demanded that the court prevent the army from destroying their houses in Abu Dis, a Palestinian district on the edge of occupied Al Quds.
The two young Palestinian men killed 11 Israelis on Dec 1 last year when they simultaneously blew themselves up on a crowded pedestrian mall in the heart of Al Quds.
The army decided last month to demolish their houses as part of their scheme to deter future attackers by making their families also pay a high price for their actions.
Since the start of August, the army has demolished around 30 homes belonging to families of Palestinian militants, and Israel security officials say the policy is starting to make bombers think twice about their actions.
ISRAELI COP KILLED: Palestinian suicide bomber killed himself and an Israeli policeman on Wednesday at a bus stop in the northern Arab town of Umm el-Fahm, in the first kamikaze attack inside Israel in six weeks, police said.
The bomber detonated the device as police approached him, killing himself on the spot, public radio said.
A policeman also died in the blast and another two Israelis were wounded, a policeman and a civilian whose condition was serious, a police spokesman said.
A witness said on army radio that the bomber was blown to pieces in the blast near a police van.
“We were sitting in a restaurant and suddenly heard a huge explosion. Another boy was hurt, the body of the man was completely destroyed. We were about 20 metres from the blast,” said the Arab Israeli witness.
The police spokesman said the bomber was apparently trying to board a bus heading further into Israel from Umm el-Fahm, which lies only 10 kilometres from the West Bank town of Jenin.
Israeli forces had been on high alert throughout the day, after warnings that a suicide bomber was trying to cross the Green Line between Israel and the West Bank.
It was the first time since Aug 4 that a suicide bomber has blown himself up inside Israel, although several have been caught trying to enter the Jewish state.
The last kamikaze attack was at Meron Junction, also in the north, when a suicide bomber from the Hamas killed seven Israelis and two Filipinos when his explosives ripped apart a bus.
Since then, Israel has enjoyed a period of calm almost unprecedented in two years of conflict with the Palestinians.
Arafat has been trying to thrash out a statement ordering an end to attacks on civilians inside Israel to mark the second anniversary of the intifada, although no final decision has been made and the position has been rejected by hardliners.
SHOOTING: An Israeli civilian was killed and a foreign worker injured on Wednesday when Palestinians opened fire on a vehicle near the Jewish settlement of Shaqed in the northern West Bank.
Initial reports said the gunmen had opened fire on a car carrying the two civilians who were driving on a road near the Shaqed settlement, some 10 kilometres west of the town of Jenin.
One man who was critically injured in the shooting died shortly afterwards, while a second was said to be only slightly hurt, the sources said.
Samaria (northern West Bank) district police spokesman David Sultan told army radio the injured man was a Romanian worker.
Earlier, settler sources said both casualties were members of Israel’s Druze minority working in the Jewish settlement of Mevo Dotan, some five kilometres south of Shaqed.
Palestinians in the nearby town of Yabad, which was under curfew at the time, said they heard a large explosion after which heavy gunfire broke out.
It was not clear what caused the blast, they said.—AFP