Israel blows up home of Palestinian who stabbed girl

"Israeli soldiers stormed the town in the early hours of Monday and evacuated the neighbouring houses. They then blew up the first floor of the home, badly damaging it and shattering the windows of the houses next-door," Bani Naim's major Mahmoud Manasra told The New Arab.

"It was home to nine people and now it is no longer habitable."

Manasra added that family has moved into rented accommodation and that locals have held meetings to discuss rebuilding the two-storey house.

Mohammad Nasser Tarayra, 19, broke into a house in the Kiryat Arba settlement near Hebron in the southern West Bank on June 30.

He stabbed 13-year-old American-Israeli Hallel Yaffa Ariel dozens of times while she slept, before being shot dead by settlement guards.

A video posted by the army online on Monday showed dozens of troops laying charges in the building in the dead of night before carrying out a controlled explosion.

Israel frequently destroys the homes of Palestinians who have carried out attacks.

Critics of the policy denounce it as a collective punishment, which leaves the families of attackers homeless, but the Israeli government claims it discourages others who might be thinking about carrying out similar acts.

Since October, 219 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese have died in violence in Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Jerusalem.

Israeli authorities claim that most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks.