IDF troops raided and mapped the home of a Palestinian suspected of killing an Israeli man in a stabbing attack in the city of Petah Tikva.

“Overnight, IDF soldiers operated in the village of Rujeeb to map out the home of the terrorist suspected of carrying out the stabbing attack yesterday in Petah Tikva in which Rabbi Shai Ohayon was murdered, may his memory be blessed. The mapping out was conducted in order to examine the possibility of demolishing the home,” the IDF said in a statement.
Rabbi Shai Ohayon, a 39-year-old father of four, was found unconscious near the Segula Junction with multiple stab wounds on Wednesday afternoon and was pronounced dead shortly after.
The 46-year-old Palestinian suspect, Khalil Doikat, who holds an Israeli work permit, was arrested by police shortly afterward with a bloodstained knife apparently used in the attack. He was handed over to the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency).
Shortly after the attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to Twitter and said the military would demolish Doikat’s West Bank home.
“My wife Sara and I embrace the family – the wife and four children who were left today without a father. We will work to demolish the home of the terrorist and seek the most severe punishment,” Netanyahu tweeted.
Ohayon was laid to rest in Petah Tikva’s Segula Cemetery in the early hours of Thursday morning. He is survived by his wife Sivan and their four children: Tohar, 13, Hillel, 11, Shiloh, 9, and Malachi, 4.
Troops from the Kfir Infantry Brigade and officers from the Shin Bet raided the home Wednesday night, confiscating documents and questioning the suspect’s family members in order to ascertain whether some of them knew about his intentions to carry out a terror attack.
According to reports, Doikat suffered from mental disorders and had been treated by health officials in the Palestinian Authority. He had no history of terror activities and did not belong to any terror group.
Though it is rare for Palestinians with legal work permits to carry out deadly attacks in Israel, two years ago 23-year-old Ashraf Walid Suleiman Na’alwa shot dead 29-year-old Kim Levengrond-Yehezkel and 35-year-old Ziv Hagbi in the Barkan industrial zone near the West Bank city of Ariel.
He was killed by IDF troops during his arrest several months later; his home was demolished by the military.
While some NGOs and human rights organizations criticize the army for using collective punishment by demolishing the homes of the terrorists’ families, the IDF believes that the demolitions are a key deterrent to stop other potential attackers.