A large military force, including members of the Combat Engineering Corps, arrived in the West Bank village of Bani Na’im, outside Hebron to raze the family home of Muhammad Nasser Tarayrah, 17. On June 30, he broke into the nearby Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba and stabbed Hallel Ariel to death as she slept in her bed. Tarayrah was shortly after shot dead by the settlement’s security team.
An excavator and explosive charges were used to bring down the second story of the building where Tarayrah lived.
Last week, the Supreme Court approved the demolition order because at least some of Tarayrah’s family members were at least partially aware of his intentions and supported the murder after the fact. The justices pointed to Facebook posts published by Tarayrah, including one reading, “Death is my right, and I am demanding my right,” which his brother admitted to having seen prior to the attack.
“My brother, you have brought pride to us, to your family, and not only to your family, but all of Bani Na’im,” his sister Lara said in an interview after the attack.
After her interview was published, Israeli forces arrested the 22-year-old for “incitement and encouragement of attackers to engage in terrorist attacks.”
However, the court rejected the army’s order to destroy the first and third stories of the building that didn’t belong to the Tarayrahs, because “There is no disagreement that the terrorist lived on the second floor of the building, and only there.”
Israel argues that home demolitions are not punishments, but rather serve as a deterrent, preventing future attacks, according to section 119 of Israel’s Emergency Security Regulations.