adminJERUSALEM. — The Israeli military yesterday demolished homes of two Palestinian militants in east Jerusalem and sealed off a room in another, shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged a crackdown on recent deadly attacks.
The three Palestinians were involved in violence against Israelis in 2014, according to an army statement. The house demolition measure was one among several announced Sunday, and approved overnight Monday during a security cabinet meeting. Netanyahu on Monday tasked Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked with setting up a mechanism that would expedite home demolitions of Palestinian attackers.
The measures came after a spate of Palestinian militant attacks that have left four Israelis dead in the past three days. Four Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli forces — two of them were perpetrators of stabbing attacks in Jerusalem and were killed on the spot and the two others were killed in confrontations with Israeli security forces in the West Bank.
Palestinian medical services reported that nearly 500 Palestinians were injured in clashes in the past three days with Israeli security forces and Jewish settlers.
In another development, Israel said yesterday it had finished work on a high-tech security fence that would protect communities in the south from possible infiltration of militants from the Gaza Strip.
A spokesperson for the Israeli defence ministry said in a statement early yesterday that the fence, which spreads over dozens of kilometres and includes high-tech sensor devices, would protect 12 communities adjacent to the Gaza enclave.
According to the statement, the cost of constructing the fence and maintaining it for the next three years would be over $7,5 million.
The decision to build the fence came after last year’s 50-day war on Gaza, which left more than 2 000 Palestinians and over 70 Israelis dead. — Xinhua.
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