‘Collective punishment’: Family home of suspect demolished in West Bank

Nablus, occupied West Bank – The Sanoubar family say the Israeli soldiers only gave them two minutes to leave their homes. Then, the apartment block the extended family lived in was demolished.

The explosion in Nablus on Tuesday shook the area as huge clouds of dust and smoke billowed out of the building’s floors.

The home 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 apartment building, all punished collectively for the alleged actions of Sanoubar.

‘They did this to frighten us’

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

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

Sanoubar was eventually captured after a two-day manhunt in Nablus, in 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 “when the people inside have nothing to do with any crime” as an “act of terrorism” against his family.

“We’re not the terrorists; they are,” he told media. “This is completely unjust.”

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

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

He gestured wildly, surrounded by the dusty ruins of his lifelong home, now with a gaping hole looking out over west Nablus.

“It is meant as a deterrent action against the entire Palestinian people.”

The family told media that the Israeli army informed them that their now-demolished home had also been confiscated, making it illegal for them to return to it or rebuild the damaged skeleton that is still standing.

The Israeli army said that the home had been demolished as part of the so-called “Operation Five Stones”, which it launched in late November as a “counterterrorism” 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 being against 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 was detained.

All three siblings are being held under Israel’s system of administrative detention, which allows prisoners to be jailed indefinitely without trial.

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

Israeli soldiers have stormed the family apartments on several occasions, destroying furniture and possessions.

Amer said the punitive actions were an effort to coerce his son into surrendering while he was on the run.

The family received a demolition notice in April and was given just 72 hours to file an objection, which the Israeli courts rejected.

The demolition was scheduled for November 18, and the family says it has been on tenterhooks awaiting the sound of military vehicles since then.

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

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

Other families living nearby, who were evacuated for the demolition, have returned to their homes, many with external damage to repair, such as shattered windows.

The remains of Sanoubar’s top-floor bedroom were visible from the roof, including the words “We fight so we can live” emblazoned on the wall.