Israel revives 'home razing' as punishment

JERUSALEM, May 7 (UPI) -- An Israeli government recommendation to demolish the West Bank homes of two convicted murderers, as punishment, has been approved by Defense Minister Barak.

The punitive demolition of homes, once a common practice, was ended in 2005 by Israeli authorities in the face of international criticism, but the increasingly hawkish Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak agreed to raze the homes of Hakim and Ajmad Awad, two cousins from the Palestinian village of Awarta, the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported Monday.

The Awads are serving life sentences for the March 2011 murders of Ehud and Ruth Fogel, and three of their six children, in a West Bank killing spree that horrified the country.

The dead included a 3-month-old infant and a 4-year-old boy, the newspaper said.

The decision to knock down the houses will leave homeless the wives and children of the perpetrators.

The recommendation to renew the policy of home razing was made by Shin Bet, Israel's domestic security agency, because the Awads' relatives hid crucial evidence in the trials, as well as discouragement of "potential terrorists," it said.

"This is one of the most brutal terrorist attacks ever and Shin Bet thinks the demolition is a punitive step that may deter other terrorists," former Shin Bet head Yaakov Perry told Israel's Army Radio.

No date has been set for the demolitions.