IDF razes Hebron home of terrorist who murdered soldier in 2023

The Israel Defense Forces overnight on Tuesday demolished the Hebron home of Abed el-Khader Kawasme, who was responsible for the terror attack that claimed the life of IDF Cpl. Avraham Fetena and wounded six civilians in the Jerusalem area on Nov. 16, 2023.

“The terrorist was part of the cell that killed Cpl. Avraham Fetena, of blessed memory, as he was carrying out operational activity, and wounded six additional civilians, at the tunnel checkpoint” that connects Jerusalem with Judea’s Gush Etzion area, the IDF said.

On Nov. 16, 2023, Kawasme and two other Palestinian gunmen arrived at the crossing by car and opened fire on forces securing the checkpoint, who responded by shooting and killing the terrorists.

Kawasme—the son of Abdallah Kawasme, the head of Hamas in Hebron who was slain in 2003—was part of a major terrorist cell that had reportedly planned to perpetrate a much larger attack in the capital.

Then-Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai said that weapons seized from the vehicle indicated that they “planned to carry out a massacre.” The attack came just over a month after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed.

The IDF emphasized on Wednesday that its troops would “continue to act to thwart terrorism in Judea and Samaria and to bring to justice every terrorist who harms Israeli citizens and security forces.”

In a separate announcement on Wednesday, the IDF said it was seeking to demolish the Samaria home of Samer Hussein, the terrorist whose Nov. 29 shooting attack wounded 10 Israelis, three of which seriously.

Hussein was shot and killed by security forces during the attack, in which he opened fire at a Tel Aviv-bound bus near Ariel in Samaria.

“The day before yesterday, the commander of Central Command issued a notice of intent to confiscate and demolish the home of the terrorist Samer Hussein in the town of Einabus,” south of Nablus, the IDF said.

On Thursday morning, the IDF announced troops, including Yahalom Combat Engineering Corps special forces units, demolished the home of terrorist Sultan al-Ghani in the village of Baqa al-Hatab, in the Ephraim Brigade’s sector in western Samaria. Al-Ghani carried out a shooting attack on Aug. 18, 2024, in the Barkan Industrial Zone, in which Gideon Peri was murdered.

“Israeli security forces will continue to act to bring every terrorist who harms Israeli civilians and security personnel to justice,” the army said.

The demolition of Palestinian terrorists’ homes has been a subject of controversy for years. Israel’s security establishment believes that the policy bolsters deterrence and prevents further terrorist activity.

In 2023, demolitions all but stopped, according to an Israel Hayom investigation carried out with Zionist NGO Im Tirtzu. However, in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, the army has picked up the pace, issuing orders for a significant number of terrorists’ homes.