Yesterday, July 28, 2014, HaMoked received the military's responses to its
objections against the intended punitive demolitions of three homes in Hebron – the family homes of the two fugitives who have been missing from their homes since the abduction and killing of the three Israelis, and a third man, a suspected accomplice.
The military announced it now intends to seal the apartment in which lives one of the fugitives' nuclear family, rather than to demolish the entire house, as initially planned. The decision was revised following information presented in the objection, that the apartment in which the fugitive lived is on the ground floor of a three-storey building, and in order "not to jeopardize the other parts of the structure".
It was further stated, that given HaMoked's claims in the objection filed on behalf of the second fugitive's family and
the engineer's opinion supplemented to it, the military decided to retract its decision to demolish the current apartment in which the fugitive's nuclear family lives – located on the ground floor of a two storey building; instead, the military plans to demolish the family's previous apartment on the top floor of the building. This apartment was already detonated by the military on the night of June 30, 2014, during what the military calls in its response "a search inside the structure" – however, the military now claims that in view of "the difference between the purpose of the search operation and the purpose of the demolition […] the search that was conducted does not nullify the military commander's authority to act pursuant to Regulation 119" of the Defense (Emergency) Regulations of the British Mandate, and to order the additional demolition of this apartment "to prevent the possible habitation in any part of the structure in which the terrorist and his nuclear family live".
Regarding the third home, that of the nuclear family of the suspected accomplice,
the military has announced it did not revise its position, and intends to demolish the entire house "as it is required for urgent military needs".
The military announced in its responses, that the sealing and demolitions would take place at 9:00 a.m. on July 31, 2014. HaMoked intends to petition the High Court of Justice.
