Israel demolishes home of Palestinian suspect in Jerusalem attacks that killed 2

JERUSALEM —

The Israeli army said on Thursday that it demolished the West Bank home of a Palestinian involved in twin bombings in Jerusalem that killed two and wounded at least 18 others in November.

Israeli authorities arrested Islam Faroukh in December on suspicion of carrying out the bombings, part of a more than year-long surge in violence in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

The army released video footage showing troops closing off the area and carrying out small controlled explosions, destroying an apartment in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah early on Tuesday.

The army said people threw rocks and fire bombs at troops, who returned fire. The Palestinian Health Ministry reported one Palestinian was moderately wounded by Israeli gunfire and treated at a local hospital.

Israel demolishes the homes of attackers in an attempt to deter others, a tactic critics say amounts to collective punishment.

The attack in November came after months of relentless violence in the West Bank, where the Israeli military has been conducting near-nightly raids in response to Palestinian attacks against Israelis.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with east Jerusalem and Gaza. The Palestinians seek the territories for their hoped-for independent state.