- Title: WEST BANK/GAZA: ISRAELIS DEMOLISH HOUSE OF HAMAS BOMBMAKER
- Date: 14th March 1996
- Summary: RAFAT, WEST BANK AND GAZA CITY, GAZA (MARCH 14, 1996/FILE) (REUTERS TELEVISION - ACCESS ALL) RAFAT, WEST BANK (MARCH 14, 1996) 1. GV LONG VIEW RAFAT VILLAGE 0.06 2. LV ZOOM HOME OF ASSASSINATED HAMAS BOMB MAKER YAHYA AYYASH EXPLODES 0.41 3. GV CLOUD OF SMOKE OVER VILLAGE 0.48 4. SLV ISRAELI SOLDIERS; LOCAL PEOPLE; M
- Embargoed: 29th March 1996 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: RAFAT, WEST BANK/ GAZA CITY, GAZA
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Reuters ID: LVA24KDNLJ6ZRBG6CLXHA9BOFTMH
- Story Text: - INTRO: Israel continues reprisals against Hamas with the demolition of an Islamic militants' family home in the West Bank.
------------------------ Israel blew up the home of an assassinated Hamas bombmaker on Thursday (March 14) and announced plans to expel Islamic militants linked to suicide bombings that have killed dozens of people in the Jewish state.
The demolition of the family home of Yahya Ayyash occurred as U.S. President Bill Clinton paid a solidarity visit to Israel following four recent bombings that killed 58 people.
Prime Minister Shimon Peres, who faces elections on May 29, has ordered an all-out war against Islamic militants.
Witnesses said sappers placed explosives around the two-storey house where Ayyash's widow and two children lived in the West Bank village of Rafat. The soldiers cleared neighbours away before they blew it up.
The explosion blew its roof into the sky and sent up a cloud of dust and debris, witnesses said. Residents who watched from a distance broke into protest chants.
The Islamic militant group Hamas began a wave of suicide bombings on February 25 to avenge the killing of Ayyash in Gaza in January. Hamas blamed his death on Israel.
Ayyash, known as "The Engineer", was widely believed to be behind a wave of suicide bombings in 1994 and 1995 which began after a Jewish settler killed 29 Palestinians in a mosque in the West Bank town of Hebron.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, under pressure from Israel, has rounded up some 600 Hamas activists in PLO-ruled areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Israel routinely demolished homes of militants involved in attacks before a self-rule deal was signed with the Palestine Liberation Organisation in 1993.
It resumed house demolitions last week, destroying the home of a suicide bomber in the West Bank village of Burka. Israel plans to demolish the homes of other suicide bombers.
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