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IDF maps out homes of Palestinian killers for possible demolition

The Israel Defense Forces mapped out the homes of the suspected killers of Dvir Sorek for possible demolition.

By World Israel News Staff

On Sunday night, IDF soldiers surveyed the homes of two Arabs suspected of killing Dvir Sorek, 19, a Jewish student, on the evening of Wednesday, August 7, in order to lay the groundwork for their demolition.

“Overnight, IDF troops operated in the village of Beit Kahil, northwest of Hebron, in order to survey the houses of the two terrorists suspected of carrying out the stabbing attack on August 7, 2019, in which IDF Corporal Dvir (Yehuda) Sorek was murdered. The surveying was carried out in order to examine the potential demolition of the two houses,” an IDF spokesperson said.

The Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, arrested the two Palestinian suspects in their homes. They are cousins Nasir Asafra, 24, and Qassem Asafra, 30. The IDF has identified the former as a Hamas member. Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, has been making greater efforts to create terror cells in Judea and Samaria.

Neither of the two had prior arrests.

Sorek was found stabbed to death by the side of the road near the yeshiva where he studied. Sorek was a student who was enrolled in a study/military service program popular with religious Zionist Jews. He had yet to start his military training.

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Israel’s security forces said that they believed it was an attempted kidnapping attempt. Sorek may have fought his victims, thereby preventing the kidnapping.

The IDF immediately began a manhunt for the killers and located the suspects, whom they apprehended sleeping in their homes on Saturday night.

The family, including Sorek’s father and grandmother, said they wished that the suspected killers had not been taken alive.

“I would have been happier if they wouldn’t have been captured alive, but rather killed, because unfortunately this capture is only temporary. They could, God-forbid, eventually be freed,” his grandmother, Esther Shlezinger, said.

Israel has released Palestinian prisoners in the past in exchange for captured soldiers.