Security forces destroy home of Palestinian fighter

Israeli forces yesterday destroyed the home of a Palestinian fighter who fatally shot an Israeli tour guide before being killed by security forces in Jerusalem last year.Police said more than 150 security personnel arrived in the Shuafat refugee camp in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem for the destruction of the home of Fadi Abu Shkhaydam, a member of the Hamas group that rules the Gaza Strip.Police said residents of the camp threw stones at officers, prompting forces to use “riot dispersal means”.Video recorded by local residents showed heavily armed troops using hand tools to punch holes into the walls of the apartment in a multi-storey building. Police clarified that because the home was part of a bigger residential building, the destruction “of the fighter’s house was carried out by demolishing the interior”.The apartment was then sealed, with ‘no entry’ spray-painted in Arabic on the door.Shkhaydam shot and killed 25-year-old South African-Israeli Eliyahu Kay in Jerusalem’s Old City and injured two civilians and two police officers before security forces fatally shot him in November 2021, according to Israeli police.Rights activists have condemned Israel’s policy of destroying the homes of Palestinian attackers, arguing that it amounts to collective punishment, often displacing individuals who played no role in the violence. Israel says the practice acts as a deterrent.