WEST BANK: Families of Palestinians suspected in Israeli teen killing survey homes destroyed by Israel

Record ID: 565527

  • Title: WEST BANK: Families of Palestinians suspected in Israeli teen killing survey homes destroyed by Israel
  • Date: 18th August 2014
  • Summary: HEBRON, WEST BANK (AUGUST 18, 2014) (REUTERS) MAN LOOKING AT DAMAGE CAUSED AFTER ISRAELI TROOPS DESTROYED HOUSE OF , HUSSAM KAWASME, ONE OF THE THREE SUSPECTED OF KILLING THE ISRAELI TEENAGERS CHILDREN PLANTING HAMAS FLAGS VARIOUS OF RUINS OF HOUSE VARIOUS OF CHILD WITH HAMAS FLAG STANDING ON RUINS OF HOUSE VARIOUS OF EXTERIOR OF HOUSE OF AMAR ABU AYSHA, ONE OF THE THREE SUSPECTED OF KILLING THE ISRAELI TEENAGERS VARIOUS OF PEOPLE CLEANING UP INSIDE HOUSE EXTERIOR OF HOUSE OF MARWAN KAWASME, ONE OF THE THREE SUSPECTED OF KILLING THE ISRAELI TEENAGERS VARIOUS OF MAN TRYING TO REMOVE THE CONCRETE, AFTER ISRAELI FORCES SEALED OFF THE HOUSE MAN LOOKING AT THE SEALED OFF HOUSE CONCRETE USED TO SEAL OFF HOUSE MOTHER OF MARWAN KAWASME, AMNEH KAWASME, OUTSIDE HOUSE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MOTHER OF MARWAN KAWASME, AMNEH KAWASME , SAYING: "Today in the morning, they raid the house and they sealed off by using the concrete. They filled the house with concrete from the floor to the ceiling. God is greater than them." CHILD VARIOUS OF HOUSE SEALED OFF WITH CONCRETE
  • Embargoed: 2nd September 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: West bank
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5RY6GLS0QIA11VYUK7VV46UAQ
  • Story Text: Families of three suspected of killing the Israeli teenagers inspected the damage after Israel demolishes the suspects' houses.

    Palestinians in Hebron inspected the damage to their homes after Israeli troops on Monday (August 18) demolished the homes of two Palestinians it suspects of the abduction and killing of three teenagers in the occupied West Bank in June, the army said.
    Troops set charges to destroy the homes of Hussam Kawasme and Amar Abu Aysha in the southern West Bank before dawn.
    Palestinian children hung Hamas flags on the ruins of the house of Hussam Kawasme.
    Israel accuses Hamas Islamist militants of the abduction and killing of Jewish seminary students Gil-Ad Shaer, Naftali Fraenkel and Eyal Yifrah, who went missing on June 12 and were discovered dead a couple of weeks later in the West Bank.
    Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied the accusations.
    Hussam Kawasme, a 40-year-old resident of Hebron, was arrested on July 11 but the other two suspects remained at large, the army said.
    Hussam Kawasme's arrest was made public for the first time earlier this month in a document from a court case over whether houses belonging to him and two other suspects should be destroyed as a punitive measure.
    It said Kawasme had admitted helping to organise the kidnapping - securing funding from Hamas and buying weapons which he passed on to the two other suspects who carried out the attack.
    He also helped to bury the bodies of the teenagers in a plot of land he had bought a few months earlier, it said.
    At Amer Abu Aysha's house, Palestinians gathered to clean up the destroyed apartment.
    The military statement said Israel's supreme court had affirmed the military's wish to demolish the homes and had rejected three appeals by the suspects' families against their destruction.
    Israeli troops sealed off the home of a third suspect, Marwan Kawasme, his mother Amneh Kawasme said.
    "Today in the morning, they raid the house and they sealed off by using the concrete. They filled the house with concrete from the floor to the ceiling. God is greater than them," she said.
    The killings set off a cycle of violence that led to a month-long offensive between Israel and militants in Hamas-dominated Gaza.
    Israel carried out air strikes and a ground offensive in the enclave to counter militant rocket fire and to blow up a network of tunnels dug under the border to infiltrate the Jewish state.
    The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza says 1,980 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the conflict. On the Israeli side, 64 soldiers and three civilians have been killed.
    A ceasefire that brought fighting to a halt is due to expire later on Monday and Egyptian-mediated talks to end the conflict are not certain to succeed, according to Palestinian delegates participating in the talks in Cairo.
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