OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 20 July — Israel destroyed the homes of two Palestinian bombers and detained their relatives yesterday for possible exile, a move that sparked Palestinian ire and threats of bloody retaliation from the Hamas.
The US criticized the Israeli move saying its renewed policy of bulldozing homes of Palestinian fighters and expelling their families "will not solve Israel’s security problems."
Human rights groups warned that plans by the Israeli Army to deport the relatives of the Palestinian men could be a war crime under the Geneva conventions.
A senior Israeli security official said his country was examining the possibility of expelling the detainees to the Gaza Strip from the West Bank.
"I see this as a war crime. I see this as a crime against humanity," Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said of the tactic, which Israel used against Palestinians in the first uprising of 1987-93.
Hamas, which has spearheaded a campaign of bombings against Israel, threatened to launch more attacks if the deportations are carried out.
The Israeli Army destroyed the family homes of two wanted men, Nasser Al-Din Assidi of Hamas and Ali Ahmad Al-Ajouri of Fatah. Witnesses said 22 people were made homeless in the overnight operation near the West Bank city of Nablus and that soldiers took 22 male relatives of the two Hamas members into custody.
At around midnight, Israeli troops raided Askar refugee camp near Nablus, according to witnesses. They said the soldiers came with a large bulldozer and dynamited the three-story home of Ali Ajouri, a commander in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
"We are examining the legal possibility of expelling to the Gaza Strip the close relatives of attackers, and await the opinion of the government legal adviser in the coming days," said Raanan Gissin, spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Daniel Taub, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Israel sought ways to deny bombers a "supportive environment".
"One of the proposals under consideration...is to remove (their) families from the environment in which they have been operating and place them in other parts of the Palestinian territories, specifically in the Gaza Strip," he said.
"Our answer to the Zionists will be strong and bloody, we will send explosive messages to the Zionists everywhere we can get to," said the Ezzedine Al-Qassem Brigade, the group’s armed wing, in a statement to AFP in Gaza City.
Israeli human rights group B’Tselem warned the government that expelling relatives would be illegal under international law. "This dangerous measure is against the Geneva Convention, and transferring Palestinian citizens is a war crime," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.
In Paris, a French Foreign Ministry spokesman Francois Riveasseau warned that if Israel tried to expel relatives of Palestinians involved in recent attacks it would be violating an article of the Geneva Conventions.
Nabil Abu Rudeina, a top aide to Yasser Arafat, also warned the Israeli government against deporting the detained families, saying it would lead to further explosions of violence.
The expulsion threat will likely strain fragile peace efforts, which had received a boost after key Arab foreign ministers met with US President George Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell.
In another development, an Israeli civil court yesterday indicted the suspected founder of an offshoot of Arafat’s Fatah group, Nasser Naji Abu Hamid.
Meanwhile, a high-level meeting between Israeli and Palestinian officials delayed after this week’s attack on a bus in the West Bank will now be held tonight, a Palestinian official said. (The Independent)
