Soldiers raze homes of militants

ISRAELI soldiers destroyed the houses of two suspected West Bank militants yesterday, after troops killed a child and two attackers in separate incidents in the Gaza Strip.

Israel hopes that demolishing family homes of suicide bombers and suspected militants will dissuade other Palestinians from carrying out attacks.

The two houses destroyed yesterday belonged to Iyad Sawalha, accused of ordering a suicide bombing that killed 17 bus passengers in May, and Murad Abu Asal, who blew himself up in January, wounding two Israeli soldiers.

Palestinians said Sawalha, an activist in the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, is still at large.

Israeli troops yesterday shot dead two armed Palestinians who were crawling towards the fence around Gaza with a large bomb, the army said.

A five-year-old child was killed yesterday in a residential area of Khan Younis in the central Gaza Strip, residents said.

His grandfather and another Palestinian man were critically wounded, they said, saying the shooting was unprovoked.

The Israeli military said three Palestinians opened fire at soldiers and fled in a car. The soldiers fired back, wounding one of the men in the car. The military said it knew nothing about a child being hit.

The Israeli army was also criticised over the death of a teenager shot dead as troops went to arrest a wheelchair-bound Hamas leader.

Nidal Daraghmeh, 19, was told to go into the home of Nasser Jerar and tell him and anyone else inside to come out and surrender.

Daraghmeh was shot dead during the operation, although it was unclear who opened fire.

The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem charged that the military’s use of the teenager as a “human shield” was illegal.

“It is not the duty of the Palestinian population to protect Israeli soldiers, but the military’s,” the group said.

The Israeli troops later bulldozed the house with Jerar inside, killing him. The army said he was recruiting suicide bombers for Hamas and was planning to bomb an Israeli high-rise building.