Occupation blows up houses of perpetrators of Operation "Ariel" in Salfit

Al-Anbat – Mohammad Alnimer

The occupation forces demolished on Tuesday, the houses of the perpetrators of Operation Ariel last April from the town of Qarawat Bani Hassan, west of Salfit, in the northern occupied West Bank.

The occupation forces stormed the town late on Monday evening, backed by dozens of vehicles, including military bulldozers, and raided the homes of the two prisoners, Yahya Marei and Youssef Assi, and forced their families to evacuate the two houses.

The military bulldozers demolished the captive Assi's family's two-storey home, which his family of 8 people lives in it.

Subsequently, the occupation forces torpedoed the captive Marei's 4-storey house after planting explosives inside.

Captive Youssef's uncle, Ibrahim Assi, said they were surprised by the storming into the town to demolish the houses, as the occupation authorities had not informed them of the date of demolition.

He explained that the occupation had postponed the demolition process because of the United States President's tour and had not set a new date.

Violent confrontations broke out between young men and occupation forces during their incursion into the town, resulting in four young men being injured by rubber-coated metal bullets.

On 29 April, the two young men Marei and Assi carried out a shooting operation at the entrance to the settlement of "Areil", where a security guard from the settlement was killed.

Assi and Mari were arrested by Special Forces from their homes a day after the operation.