Family home of suspect demolished in West Bank

Nablus, occupied West Bank – The Sanoubar family says Israeli soldiers only gave them two minutes to leave their home. Then the building the extended family lived in was demolished.

Tuesday’s explosion in Nablus shook the region as huge clouds of dust and smoke billowed from the building’s floors.

The house belonged to the extended family of Abdul Karim Sanoubar, a 30-year-old bombing suspect currently detained in Israel. More than 30 people lived in the building, all collectively punished for Sanoubar’s alleged actions.

“They did this to scare us”

Sanoubar, a high-profile prisoner who was arrested in July this year, is known among Israeli authorities for evading capture for five months after being accused of plotting to carry out bus bombings in Israel. Bat Yam near Tel Aviv in February.

No one was injured or killed in the incident, as the explosives detonated while the buses were parked.

Sanoubar was eventually captured after a two-day manhunt in Nablus, during which Israeli forces stormed hospitals and residential buildings near Sanoubar’s family home.

After the demolition, Sanoubar’s uncle, Moayed, condemned Israel’s destruction of a building “while the people inside had nothing to do with any crime” as an “act of terrorism” against his family.

“We are not terrorists; they are,” he told Al Jazeera. “It’s completely unfair.”

Sanoubar’s father, Amer, 61, said the destruction of his home was the latest act in a wave of “collective punishment” imposed on his family for his son’s alleged crimes.

“They did this to scare us,” he said. “They want to make sure that no young Palestinian thinks of carrying a single bullet.

He gestured wildly, surrounded by the dusty ruins of his lifelong home, now with a gaping hole facing western Nablus.

“This is a dissuasive action against the entire Palestinian people. »

The family told Al Jazeera that the Israeli army informed them that their house, now demolished, had also been confiscated, making it illegal for them to return there or rebuild the damaged skeleton that still stands.

The Israeli military said the house was demolished as part of the so-called “Operation Five Stones,” launched in late November as part of an “anti-terrorism” operation.

Collective punishment

Israel’s punitive destruction of homes in the occupied West Bank is widely denounced as a strategy of collective punishment, condemned as violating international law by human rights groups.

Sanoubar’s brothers, Ahmad and Omar, aged 31 and 33 respectively, have also been imprisoned since their younger brother’s arrest.

The three siblings are being held under the Israeli detention system. administrative detentionwhich allows prisoners to be imprisoned indefinitely without trial.

Amer, the father, says he has been arrested three times since Sanoubar was accused of the bombing, and that Sanoubar’s mother and sister have also been arrested.

Israeli soldiers stormed the family’s apartments on several occasions, destroying furniture and belongings.

Amer said the punitive measures were an attempt to force his son to surrender while he was on the run.

The family received a demolition notice in April and had only 72 hours to file an objection, which Israeli courts rejected.

The demolition was scheduled for November 18 and the family says they have been waiting in suspense for the sound of military vehicles since then.

“The devastation caused by the explosion inside our building is unimaginable,” Amer added.

Sanoubar’s displaced family is now scattered around Nablus and surrounding areas, sheltering different family members.

Other families living nearby who had been evacuated due to the demolition returned home, many with exterior damage to repair, such as broken windows.

The remains of Sanoubar’s top-floor bedroom were visible from the roof, including the words “We fight to be able to live” written on the wall.