JERUSALEM, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Israeli forces demolished early on Tuesday morning the family home of a Palestinian who killed an Israeli in a West Bank settlement in July.
The military's Spokesperson's Unit released a footage showing a bulldozer razing the one-storey home in the Kauber village, north of Ramallah.
The military said in a statement that dozens of Palestinians protested the demolition, hurling rocks, firebombs, and pipe bombs at the soldiers. "The troops responded with riot dispersal means," the statement said, referring to tear gas, stun grenades and rubber-coated bullets.
In the July's attack, the assailant, identified by Israel as 17-year-old Muhammad Tarek Ibrahim Dar Yusuf, entered the settlement of Adam and stabbed to death a man and injured two others. He was shot and killed at the scene.
Israel says house demolitions are an effective deterrent against attacks.
Since Israel seized the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1967, it has demolished hundreds of Palestinian homes as a punitive measure aimed at deterring Palestinians from carrying out attacks against Israelis in the future.
In early 2005, Israeli Defense Ministry committee concluded that the measure is ineffective, and Israel ceased to use it.
However, the government renewed the controversial practice in 2015, in the wake of street attacks.
The U.S. administration has denounced the demolitions as "counterproductive" and Palestinians and human rights organizations say it constitutes an unlawful collective punishment that leaves the relatives homeless.
