Nine Palestinians arrested in West Bank

Israeli forces have arrested nine Palestinians in the West Bank overnight.

Israeli forces have arrested nine Palestinians in the West Bank overnight.

Three alleged members of Islamic Jihad were arrested in the El Arroub refugee camp, south of Bethlehem, while other Palestinians were seized near Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron.

Overnight an Israeli army unit was shot at near the Israeli-Egyptian border, but no one was injured.

According to an Israeli army statement, Israeli troops destroyed the family home of Imad Muhmad Ahmad Zeyda, a member of Yasser Arafat's Fatah party, south of Nablus overnight.

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He carried out a suicide attack in an Israeli restaurant last June which left one person dead and 14 injured.

In Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, troops demolished the family home of Yassin al-Raa, a Hamas member who was killed on December 9th in a clash with the army.

Israel has in the past six months developed a policy of systematically destroying the homes of militants who attack Israeli citizens, in a bid to deter assailants on suicide missions.

Israel says the policy has proven an effective deterrent in some cases, while critics slam it as collective punishment, leaving families without homes.

AFP