Israel razes West Bank home of jailed Palestinian

AFP/HebronIsraeli troops early Tuesday demolished the West Bank home of a Palestinian jailed for killing a Jewish settler in a knife attack late last year, the army said. The demolition of the home of Maher al-Hashlamoun in the flashpoint city of Hebron was accompanied by clashes between dozens of Palestinian stone throwers and Israeli soldiers but there were no casualties, witnesses said. Hashlamoun, a member of radical group Islamic Jihad, was given two life sentences by a military court in March for the November 10, 2014 murder of Dalia Lemkus, 26, and the attempted murder of two other people on a road in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, south of Jerusalem. Last week, the Israeli government ordered an intensification of punitive home demolitions in response to a wave of stabbing and shooting attacks and other deadly unrest. It says the controversial policy acts as a deterrent but critics say the main victims of such demolitions are relatives forced to pay for another person's actions.