Israel charges troops for 'revenge' attack on crowded house in Palestine

Israel's military has said it filed "severe indictments" against two soldiers who threw an improvised explosive at a Palestinian house in the occupied West Bank in retaliation for the alleged kidnapping of the body of an Israeli teenager last month.

"The defendants and an additional soldier assembled an improvised explosive and threw it into a crowded house," the military said on Thursday.

"The act was committed with the intent of starting a fire in the home as a form of revenge for the kidnapping of the body of a young Israeli in Jenin."

No one in the house was wounded, according to residents.

Palestinian gunmen had seized the body of an Israeli Druze high schooler from a hospital in the West Bank town of Jenin, where he had been taken after a car accident, Israeli military had said.

The body was later returned.

The third soldier will also be indicted in the coming days, the military said.

There has been an intensification of violence in the West Bank since March. Israeli forces often raid Palestinian areas on the pretext of searching for "wanted" Palestinians, triggering clashes with residents.

Palestine's Health Ministry data shows more than 212 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the start of 2022 in the West Bank and besieged Gaza enclave. 

READ MORE: 2022 in review: Palestinians under growing Israeli aggression and expansion

Occupation and illegal settlements

Israel occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza during the 1967 Middle East War. It annexed the entire East Jerusalem city in 1980, claiming it as Israel's "eternal" capital — a move never recognised by the international community.

Palestine sees East Jerusalem, along with Gaza, as part of its country with East Jerusalem being the capital.

Under international law, the West Bank and East Jerusalem are "occupied territories" and all Jewish settlement-building activities on the land are illegal.

Palestinians accuse Israel of waging an aggressive campaign to "Judaise" the historic city by effacing its Palestinian Arab and Islamic identity and driving out its Palestinian inhabitants.

Almost 500,000 illegal Israeli settlers live in over 130 settlements dotting the West Bank alongside nearly three million Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation.

READ MORE: Expanding illegal West Bank settlements is Netanyahu govt's top priority