The home of Ashraf Na’alwa, who murdered two of his Israeli co-workers at their workplace at the Barkan Industrial Park in October, was partially demolished on Monday morning, amid protests from local residents and outcries from the pro-Israel camp that the limited destruction was little more than symbolic.
Arab demonstrators arrived at the house in the enclave of Shweiki near Tulkarm, but were removed from the scene prior to the demolition.
Na’alwa shot Kim Levengrond Yehezkel and Ziv Hagbi at close range in the Alon recycling factory at the Barkan Industrial Park in Samaria—a location previously hailed as a beacon of co-existence, employing hundreds of Israelis and Palestinians who worked together.
Na’alwa fled the scene after the killing, sparking a two-month intensive manhunt that tracked him to a house in a neighborhood of Shechem/Nablus. After engaging in a firefight with Israeli security forces, he was killed. No Israeli forces were injured.
More than 100 Palestinians were arrested on suspicion of providing aid to Na’alwa or failing to come forth with critical information, including his father, who reportedly knew for weeks that Na’alwa was training for an attack.
Images of the demolition showed the residence largely intact, except for large holes broken through several walls in the spacious home.
Yet some said the move was not sufficient to stop the next terror attack.
“Is this one of the strangest things you’ve ever seen?” asked director general of the Jewish Community of Hebron, Uri Karzen on Twitter, posting a photo of a hole in one wall. “This is how Israel destroys a terrorist’s house?!! And then govt can’t figure out why terrorists aren’t deterred from murder.”
“This is what ‘the destruction of the terrorist’s house’ who killed Ziv Hagbi and Kim Levengrond-Yehezkel looks like,” said Jewish Home Knesset Party member Moti Yogev in a post to Twitter. “Laughable work, a joke of deterrence,” he said. “The legal system prevents the State of Israel from deterring its murderers. This is immoral.”