Less than three weeks after a Palestinian man Farouk Ramadan was killed while confronting illegal Israeli settlers, the Israeli army blew up his house in the occupied West Bank town of Tal.
Ramadan was among four Palestinians killed and four others injured during an attack by Israeli forces and illegal settlers on Tal in late July, according to local sources.
Ramadan, who was unarmed, seized a weapon from a settler while confronting the attack on the village southwest of Nablus. He then opened fire on the settlers and Israeli forces, killing two, according to the sources.
The Israeli army blew up the third floor of the residential building in Tal after raiding the area and forcing residents of several nearby homes to evacuate ahead of the demolition, Anadolu's correspondent reported.
Separately, the Israeli army began demolishing around 20 Palestinian shops and homes in the village of Anza, south of Jenin in the northern West Bank, allegedly for construction without permits, according to a local activist and Anadolu's correspondent.
Pretext: Building without permit
Tayseer Sadaqa, an activist who documents Israeli violations in Anza, said the army raided the village with demolition vehicles and began tearing down around 20 shops located on the main road linking the village to Jenin.
“The demolitions are being carried out under the pretext of building without a permit,” Sadaqa told Anadolu.
The demolitions come amid an escalation in the destruction of Palestinian homes and other structures across the occupied West Bank, alongside illegal settlement expansion and the establishment of new outposts, according to Palestinian sources.
Since the start of Israel's genocide in Gaza on October 8 2023, Israeli forces and illegal settlers have escalated attacks in the West Bank, killing more than 1,183 Palestinians, injuring around 13,000 and arresting nearly 25,000, according to Palestinian figures.
Palestinians warn that the escalation is part of Israeli efforts to pave the way for annexation of the occupied West Bank and undermine the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders under relevant UN resolutions.
