The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) demolished three homes of Palestinians in the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin city in the northern occupied West Bank, in a move that reflects a persistent policy of collective punishment against the Palestinian population.
According to eyewitnesses, the occupation forces stormed the town, supported by armored bulldozers and engineering units, before proceeding to blow up the homes of Mohammad Nazzal, Mohammad Zakarneh, and Wael Lahlouh — all of whom were previously killed by the occupation during raids and various military operations.
The IOF continued to implement a policy of demolishing the homes of Palestinians it accuses of carrying out attacks against Israeli targets. This policy holds families and surrounding communities “responsible” for the actions attributed to one of their members by destroying their shelter and displacing women, children, and the elderly — a blatant violation of international humanitarian law and an embodiment of the notion of “collective punishment,” which is prohibited by the Fourth Geneva Convention.
It has become clear that the occupation does not target the homes of fighters during their attacks, but rather returns later, after killing them, to inflict further harm on their families by demolishing their homes completely, even though no charges are directed at the residents of these houses.
This demolition is part of a broad escalation taking place in the West Bank since October 2023, where incursions, extrajudicial killings, home demolitions, and arrests have sharply increased. Palestinian estimates indicate that at least 999 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank during this period, in addition to around 7,000 injured and over 18,000 detained.
Moreover, the escalation in the West Bank cannot be separated from the ongoing genocidal war in Gaza, where the occupation employs the same methods of starvation, destruction, indiscriminate killing, and forced displacement, defying rulings from the International Court of Justice and international demands to stop the aggression.
What is happening is not only a violation of Palestinians’ right to housing and safe living, but part of an integrated system aimed at terrorizing Palestinian society and stripping it of the foundations for life and resilience, in the absence of any serious international accountability for the occupation.
