IDF troops, assisted by the Israel Police and the Border Police, on Tuesday night demolished the eastern Jerusalem home of Abdelrahman Shaludi, the terrorist who last month carried out an attack near the Jerusalem Light Rail and murdered two people.
Shaludi plowed his car into pedestrians at the Ammunition Hill station of the Jerusalem Light Rail, killing three-month-old Chaya Zisel Braun and 22-year-old Karen Jemima Mosquera, who was fatally injured and succumbed to her injuries a few days later.
"Demolition of terrorists’ homes is a clear message to all those who seek to harm Israeli citizens and security forces, that terrorism and harming innocent people has a heavy price that they will pay if they choose to continue these activities," the IDF said in a statement.
"The IDF will continue to act in accordance with the instructions of the political leadership, in collaboration with all the security agencies and will not hesitate to take all available legal means to strike terrorists and their supporters, and discourage additional attacks."
Shaludi’s family members received notice last Friday that their home in Silwan would be demolished, part of Israel’s attempts to discourage terrorists from carrying out similar attacks.
A similar order was issued last week for the demolition of the home of Mohammed Jabis, who slammed his tractor into a bus in Jerusalem in August, killing Rabbi Avraham Walles and injuring six other people.
The United States was unhappy with Israel’s demolition orders, with State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki saying that “punitive demolitions are counterproductive to the cause of peace and exacerbate an already tense situation.”
On Tuesday, hours after the terrorist attack on a synagogue in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborhood, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ordered the demolition of the homes of the terrorists and directed that enforcement against those who incite toward terrorist attacks be significantly increased.