The Israeli government decided Oct. 13 to speed up demolition of the houses of Palestinians it holds responsible for stabbing attacks. It also has approved other penalties that include not releasing the bodies of the Palestinians who were killed to their families and withdrawing Israeli citizenship from these families in East Jerusalem and the 1948 territories.

Israel has continued to withhold, since Oct. 1, the bodies of seven dead from Jerusalem.

On the morning of Oct. 15, Israeli forces sent demolition warnings to the families of prisoners Karam al-Masri and Yahya Haj from Nablus, accused of killing a settler and his wife near the Itamar settlement Oct. 1. Warnings were also sent to the families of Moaz Hamed and Abdullah Hamed from Silwad in Ramallah, both prisoners of the Palestinian Authority and accused by Israel of belonging to a military cell that killed a soldier and injured three settlers in Shafout Raheel settlement near Nablus. 

Israel has pursued this policy of destruction since the occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1967, with temporary lapses. Most recently, it resumed the tactic in 2014, after a four-year halt.